Finding the Best Chocolate Cake in Houston

I came to Texas for my brother’s wedding (last weekend – Congratulations!) and while I was here, my other brother and his wife Ashley planned a cake sampling of the great cakes of Houston. Can you say YUM?

They used the chocolate cake from Cheddar’s as a constant – because let’s face it, Cheddar’s chocolate cake is Goood.

Also sampled was the Chocolate Bar, the Palm, and Taste of Texas.

Ashley make scoring sheets and everything. As this was a worthy quest (finding the best chocolate cake in Houston is no trivial matter), we decided to take it seriously. She cut slices of each piece and we scored them on overall taste, depth of chocolate, texture, icing consistency, icing flavor, and icing to cake ratio. Yes, we are super awesome.

There was some debate about whether or not to serve said cake slices cold or at room temperature. I prefer room temperature as I like my icing soft and gooey. Someone else preferred cold, but that person is just wrong. ;-)

We’ll start with Cheddar’s: taste – 4, depth of chocolate – 3 (light but good, more like duncan hines, comfortable and happy), texture – 5 (seriously, this is one good cake and so cheap too!), icing consistency – 4, icing flavor – 5, icing to cake ratio – 5. Final score: 26.

Chocolate Bar: taste – 3, depth of chocolate – 4, texture – 2 (very very dense, too much so), icing consistency – 2 (again too dense), icing flavor – 4 (very chocolatey), icing to cake ratio – 4 (needs more icing). Final score: 19

We were all quite surprised at how poorly the Chocolate Bar cake showed against the others. It was a dry, dense, and although it was very chocolatey, Ashley summed it up best, “I was left wanting more from the cake… not more bites of cake.”

The Palm: taste – 4, depth of chocolate – 4 (very cocoa-heavy in a good way), texture – 3, icing consistency – 4, icing flavor – 4 (deeeep chocolate), icing to cake ratio – 2 (as the cake is very very tall, it is impossible to get a good icing to cake ratio unless taking some icing from the top with each bite and I just want a little more from my cake than that…). Final score: 21

Taste of Texas: taste – 4, depth of chocolate – 5 (I needed fewer bites there was so much chocolate flavor!), texture – 5, icing consistency – 4 (smoooooth!), icing flavor – 5, icing to cake ratio – 5. Seriously, I had a hard time finding anything about this cake to count off for! Quite simply, it is amazing. Final score: 28

The two standouts were definitely the Palm and Taste of Texas. If you love cocoa and more cake than icing, I would refer you to the Palm. But, if you love the perfect balance of cocoa, cake, icing, comfort, and sweet, then you definitely must try the Taste of Texas the next time you’re in Houston.

I highly suggest chocolate cake testing for your next dessert. We ate a small yet substantial meal beforehand just so our blood sugar wouldn’t jump off the charts; and even with no whole pieces of cake, we all felt a little woozy from chocolate overload. Okay, a lot woozy. But so worth it.