Do not substitute chocolate chips – either semisweet or white – when the recipe calls for simply semisweet or white chocolate. Use bar chocolate. The chips have a tighter consistency because they have been specially formulated to withstand heat and not melt. Frostings and glazes made from them are not as creamy.

Chocolate in a recipe may cause it to bake more quickly. For this reason, you want to keep your eyes on that chocolate cake in the oven. Don’t let it overbake!

Cocoa powder is an excellent addition to a cake mix cake, and you can add up to 3 tbs (the equivalent of 1 oz of unsweetened chocolate) to give the mix more flavor. Use unsweetened cocoa powder, NOT Dutch-processed cocoa, which has been treated with an alkali to make it more soluble and more delicate in flavor.

Milk chocolate is fine when you want a mild chocolate flavor, but it doesn’t have the intensity or the shelf life of either semisweet or unsweetened chocolate.

White chocolate isn’t chocolate at all, for it contains no chocolate liquor (just cocoa butter, milk, and flavorings). But it does have a creamy consistency that works well in frostings, and its milky flavor contrasts nicely with a deep chocolate cake.

It’s easy to amplify the chocolate taste by adding pure vanilla extract, dark rum, or toasted nuts.