Cocoa Powder

For some of the chocolatey recipes in this book, you’ll need unsweetened cocoa powder. The latter exists in several varieties; the most common for baking are Dutch process cocoa powder and natural unsweetened cocoa powder. Dutch process cocoa powder is the variety most available in Europe and is neutral in that it does not react with acids or bases. Since it doesn’t react with baking soda, it is usually accompanied by baking powder in recipes, unless there are other ingredients that can react with the baking soda to help the cake rise (think buttermilk or Guinness). Natural unsweetened cocoa powder is more on the acidic side, and more bitter. This acidic property means that it reacts with baking soda to help a cake rise. Most recipes in this book were tested using Dutch process cocoa powder, but natural unsweetened cocoa powder will also work fine (you may end up with a slightly taller cake than if you use Dutch process cocoa).