15 Ingredients To Revamp Your Classic Chocolate Cake

Hello, it's called sour cream? Maybe you've heard of it? While a slew of baked goods actually call for sour cream and then taste like it, sour cream in cake is noted for its understated oomph in your overall bake. It will add a slight tangy kick, but it's also about to be the most moistest cake you've ever had. Most. Moistest.

Use sour cream in place of milk in a recipe, or add it to a standard box mix for more of a homemade feel. Bonus, you can go all in on the moisture with a nearly jet-black sour cream cake, incorporating black cocoa powder for a multi-dimensional, rich, chocolate flavor. Add a few sprinkles, and that goth birthday party is gonna be lit.

But while in the front row of Pilates class, you may ask yourself, "Can I sub Greek yogurt for the sour cream?" Yes, if you want to ditch some fat, yogurt's usually the way to do it, but unless it's done with a little care in baking — like adding more fat by increasing the butter or oil content to balance out the swap — the chill, tender vibe that sour cream offers flies straight out the window. 

Usually, open beer bottles sitting around the kitchen mean one of two things; A. There's a glorious stout-laced cake currently baking in the oven, or B. Grandpa Buck is a few beers away from wandering around the backyard with his pants around his ankles. Fingers crossed for A.

Deep, dark beers like Guinness, and imperial or coffee stouts, have long been associated with decadent flavors like chocolate. And, with the slightly bitter taste of the hops, along with the sugar-like toasty malt, it practically translates to a liquid dessert all by itself. Whatever great mind finally thought to put stout beer in a chocolatey cake, thank (burp) you.

This style of brew adds luxurious moisture and dimensional flavor, as well as color, thanks to its mystical coal-black pour. For those who prefer beer to taste like beer and dessert to taste like chocolate, most of the alcohol flitters away in the oven. Go with the moment and add a zesty cream cheese frosting, or double down on the chocolate with a velvety bittersweet chocolate topping. No wrong answers. You do you.

To the modern, Tik-Tok-ish sensibilities, this already feels all sorts of infomercial, slash 1950s cookbook tip, slash Dump Cakes by Cathy Mitchell. But, the ultra-boss move of cracking open a cold one really does give you all the bouncy fluffiness you've been searching for.

Baked goodies featuring soda as a leavening agent have been a thing for ages, in the South. The trick came about back before science had evolved to Funfetti level, and home bakers needed something quick and affordable to sweeten and fluff up their scratch-made cakes. It worked so well, this trick is still being used even after the invention of baking powder.

Be it Coca-cola, Pepsi, or RC cola, a syrupy, bubbly soda added to a store-bought chocolate cake box mix offers a welcome effervescent flair to the party bowl. Just sub out both the oil  in a boxed mix and stir in the soda — you'll probably want to keep the eggs in as a binding agent. The instant fizzy foaminess will take you right back to 4th-grade science class. Except you're getting an A+ on this science fair project.

Another one for team coffee! And, all you need is a little instant espresso mix and a spoon. Even if you're not going for a mocha vibe, this trick still rules. Because you'll only notice the newly popping chocolate flavor and none of the coffee.

Instant espresso is key, versus instant coffee, because of its intensely concentrated formula. A little dash'll do ya. It even spruces up less spendy varieties of cocoa powder into something luxurious. Make a box brand taste like a million bucks, with just a teaspoon of instant espresso added to your favorite Betty Crocker mix. For real though, she turned 102 this year. She could use a little pep in her step.

Baking from scratch? Don't be afraid to throw some instant espresso into homemade recipes, too. It will covertly break into the chocolate cake with illegal taste bud-thrilling fireworks, and light them off in everyone's mouths, like a full-fledged chocolate pyrotechnic display. Sound fun? Get cookin'!

They're "biscuits," if ya fancy. But in America, biscuits are "cookies." And boy, do they end up in a lotta baked goods.

As far as cookies and cake are concerned, this clearly isn't their first rodeo. Everything from Oreos to Nutter Butters have been chopped, tossed, crumbled, sandwiched, layered, and sprinkled onto a cake. Some people make chocolate chip cookies with chocolate cake mix. And, some bake cakes designed to look like chocolate cookies. Welcome to Cookie World, would you care for a cookie with your cookie?

While dressing up a chocolate cake to look like Cookie Monster is an, um, interesting choice, it might be better to take less of a Muppet-y approach. And yeah, it involves the British type of cookies. Guys, the late Queen Elizabeth II deeply cherished this humble treat; Chocolate biscuit cake. It's a fridge cake take on regular chocolate cake, with all of the flavor, plus a very satisfying crunch. You don't even need an oven. With four simple ingredients — English tea biscuits, butter, sugar, and dark chocolate — you're pretty much next in line to the throne.

It's shredded kind of like coconut ... but sour, soggy, and cabbage-y. Still, believe it or not, when it comes to your chocolate cake's destiny, all roads lead to sauerkraut. Sound the hümmelchen (a bagpipe from Germany): BEHHHHHHHHHH. (Call now if you know how to spell the sound that bagpipes make.)

Vinegar in red velvet cake is a fairly well-known addition thanks to just about every competitive baking show in recent memory. But, real question: What in the actual hell-o operator is sauerkraut doing in a chocolate cake? Did you guys even taste this? Sauerkraut cake rules!  This veggie (drained and patted dry) adds moisture for days with a serious rise, and you won't even know it's hiding in there.

Fermented foods pack a healthy punch, and sauerkraut boasts an ancient history reaching back more than 2,000 years. Although this cake has many fuzzy origin stories, the one about it being invented by a lunch lady in the '60s just feels the most right.

Sometimes you want your cake to say, "Hey girl, bring it in, I'm here for you, and I brought the new Us Weekly." And sometimes you want your cake to say, "Geoffrey, bring me my driving gloves. I'd quite like a country outing in the Rolls." This is the second one. And, you're gonna love it.

When you absolutely require a cake that's dressed to impress, it's best to source "probably the most famous cake in the world since 1832," according to Concert-Vienna: The Sachertorte. Or, colloquially, a 3-layer chocolate sponge cake with apricot jam spread smack dab in the center, and on top, and covered in a to-die-for dark chocolate ganache. Apparently, the recipe's a cherished secret, but after a little sleuthing, the deets weren't too hard to find, mostly because the Sacher Hotel released it to the public.

Among other things, the unofficial official "approximate" Sachertorte recipe calls for 6 eggs, a real vanilla bean, dark chocolate, apricot jam, butter, and sugar. OK, so it doesn't include "secret" ingredients like endangered cocoa beans from a remote bat cave in the Amazon. But, either way, this warm, chocolatey, and buttery cake boasts a bright apricot zing from the jam that happily frolics throughout the entire bake.

Ever wonder what a regular ol' dad from the United Arab Emirates gets his kid for her birthday? A $75,000 Rolex? Nope. A $100,000 Maserati? Ew, lol, no. He gets her a $74 million cake featuring hundreds of platinum-set diamonds, created by fashion designer Debbie Wingham. The jaw-dropping dessert featured a 6-foot-long runway, with fashion show fans and models dressed to the (fondant) nines, all weighing in at roughly half a ton.

But, whatever your budget, you can still pull a Prince of Dubai on any cake you want. (That poor daughter; all those expensive diamonds, and she couldn't even eat them.) In the mood for a chocolate cake with a whole lotta ice? Skip the jeweler and hit up a baking supply store for edible diamonds that look just as good as the real thing. What? Ok, granted, this is not Tiffany & Co. But, eating the cake and how it tastes is the most important part, right? The rest is just icing.