Although it might sound counterintuitive, adding hot water to chocolate cake batter instead of milk allows for a rich, bloomed cocoa flavor to permeate every bite.

Senior Recipe Developer Molly Marzalek-Kelly of King Arthur Baking explains that milk has sweet and sour flavors, "Which, in the case of chocolate cake, kind of works against it."

It’s important to note that this trick is typically only recommended for chocolate cakes. As Marzalek-Kelly notes, it’s best for recipes that call for cocoa powder.

Cocoa powder’s fat content makes up the base of rich, decadent flavor. Not all cocoa powder is the same, so it’s important to use the right kind in your batter.

Kirsten Tibballs, pâtissier and director of Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School, recommends using "a Dutch-processed cocoa powder with 22% fat" to enhance the texture and flavor.

Plenty of popular cake recipes rely on water instead of milk. In fact, you can swap out milk for water in most chocolate cake recipes and still get delicious results.

If you want to create a more complex flavored chocolate cake and experiment beyond just including water, try adding coffee to the mix for a decadent chocolate taste.