What to use instead of cocoa powder
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Chocolate flavour that brings no fat with it
It is chocolate with most of the cocoa butter pressed out, so it delivers flavour and a little starch without changing the fat balance the recipe was built on.
Unsweetened baking chocolate, meltedRan out
1 oz melted per 3 tbsp cocoa, minus 1 tbsp of the fat in the recipe
Fudgier and denser from the extra cocoa butter, and the crumb comes out less cakey.
Dutch-process in place of natural cocoaRan out
1:1, swapping 1/8 tsp soda for 1/2 tsp baking powder per 3 tbsp cocoa
Darker, smoother and no longer acidic. Leave the soda as written and the cake will not rise.
Carob powderRan out
1:1
Sweeter and roasted with no bitterness and no caffeine, and it bakes a lighter brown and a drier crumb.
What doesn't work: Hot cocoa mix. It is mostly sugar, milk powder and anti-caking starch, so the batter goes over-sweet and pale and the chocolate flavour never turns up.
Dry coating that keeps a soft sweet from sticking
It sits on the surface as a dry powder and absorbs a little of the fat weeping out of the sweet, so the outside stays matte and dry to the fingers.
Powdered sugarRan out
1:1 by volume
Sweet rather than bitter, and it dissolves into patches anywhere the sweet is damp.
Chocolate sprinklesRan out
1:1 by volume
The traditional Brazilian finish. Adds crunch, hides fingerprints, and pushes the whole sweet noticeably sweeter.
Finely ground toasted nutsRan out
1:1 by volume
Crunchier and oilier, and it seals the sweet so it stays soft for longer. It goes rancid inside a week.
Freeze-dried raspberry powderRan out
1:1 by volume
Sharply sour and bright pink, and it turns tacky within a day in a humid kitchen.
What doesn't work: Drinking chocolate or any sweetened cocoa. The sugar in it pulls moisture out of the sweet and the coating turns into a sticky glaze within an hour of rolling.
Natural and Dutch-process cocoa are not interchangeable in a recipe leaning on baking soda. Natural cocoa is the acid that soda reacts with.