Bake This Quick Chocolate 'Cake' Using Only 4 Ingredients

In the interest of saving time and indulging your sweet tooth, clever TikTok food hacks have sprung up and inspired culinary creativity across the board. Claims of baking cakes and other confections using minimal effort and pantry staple ingredients sound almost too good to be true, motivating curious foodies to take a closer look. There's no shame in taking a minimalist approach to delightful desserts. Consider how you need only three ingredients to create the fudgiest gluten-free cake. Still, it never hurts to get an expert opinion. So, when we heard about the viral four-ingredient chocolate cake, we reached out to Kristina Lavallee, owner of The Cake Girl, to learn more.

Many of the most popular four-ingredient chocolate cake recipes found on TikTok call for the use of apples, eggs, cocoa powder, and baking powder or some variation thereof, which can include mashed bananas instead of apples, additional sweeteners, or other ingredients. Of the TikTok-style chocolate cake recipes, Lavallee says, "The apples bring in sweetness and moisture, but without flour or any fat, it won't have that classic cake texture." While the consistency is more spongy and akin to a flourless cake, Lavallee recommends adding oil or melted butter and a small amount of flour to achieve more of a typical cake-like consistency. "That helps give it structure, a richer flavor, and a bite that feels closer to the real thing," she explains.

In addition to adding oil or butter and flour, you can include more variety in texture with thoughtful toppings and other ingredients in the batter. A small handful of chocolate chips will help amp up the fudge-like texture, or you can put them on top of the cakes straight out of the oven. No matter how you prefer to prepare your chocolate cake, adding a layer of frosting or icing on top will give a more traditional style. Serving it à la mode with a scoop of ice cream is another option.

Although recipes describe the four-ingredient delicacy as a cake, Lavallee disagrees. "I wouldn't call it a true chocolate cake. It's more like a fun baking experiment, somewhere between a soufflé and a mousse," she says. This does play somewhat fast and loose with regard to traditional types of cake. By definition, a cake includes flour and fat.

While these recipes are tasty and chocolatey, Lavallee says that they "won't taste or feel like the kind of chocolate cake most people are used to" — unless, of course, you follow her advice and add some oil or butter and flour to the mix. Still, for those who want a healthier alternative to cake, these minimal ingredients and quick process can suffice.