There’s some baking cocoa in my pantry that’s been in there forever and is past it’s expiration date but it smells fine. Can I use it to make a chocolate cake? Should I taste it (isn’t making cocoa kind of bitter?) or just throw it out and live without chocolate cake for two or more weeks?
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Eat it
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I’d use it. I have no idea when the expiration of mine is, haha.
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I think it’s fine? I haven’t tasted straight cocoa in decades but it reminds me of chocolate-betrayal so I think that lines up with how it tasted last time.
Excellent. Now the next difficult choice is if I should make it tonight or wait till the weekend since Kiddo has been requesting to make it for Mr. Meer, so it will be an Activity.
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Second using it. It’s powder.
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I meant eat in food…but you do you
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I think any spoilage would be detectable by smell but you could make a small test batch of something just in case
If it has stayed dry/you haven’t had any problems since owning it like mold or pantry moths, I say use it. It’s pretty inert 
It won’t have as much flavor, but if it’s a cheap cocoa powder it wouldn’t have anyway tbh. It’ll do the trick in a cake or similar, especially if some melted chocolate joins the party.
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That’s what I thought at first, then I was like wait, I can just taste a little of it to see if it really tastes off before I commit to Expectations About Cake Making.
Thankfully I just restocked my chocolate stash so I have I think five different types of chocolate (one bag is a variety pack). Mmm.
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A small mug cake would be a very easy way to test it without a full cake commitment.
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Or a cup of hot cocoa
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Could always add a ganache or shaved chocolate coating if the cake is not chocolatey enough.
I have never paid attention to cocoa expiration dates and have been happy with all my experiences in the past.
Good luck!
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This is so accurate 
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@meerkat I definitely used my last tin of cocoa powder way past it’s expiration date. Around the holidays I bought more which is when I realized mine was wildly out of date, it didn’t really effect much
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I had no idea that cocoa had expiration dates. Now that i know my behaviour isn’t going to change at all.
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Tbh I just kinda throw things together, but what I usually do is: bread crumbs or some blitzed oats; an egg; some nutmeg; some ground mustard. It’s basically what I do for Swedish meatballs but shaped into a loaf instead.
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On the expired cocoa issue: ignore it. I’ve been using cocoa since long before they put expiration dates on cocoa (they used to sell it only in tins, made of actual metal). I’ve definitely used some well over a decade old. As long as it hasn’t grown any fuzzies/ smells normal, it’s not going to be a problem.
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Oh, cool cocoa factoid: in one of my older cookbooks, I have a coupon for five cents off a tin of Hershey’s cocoa. I had intended to use it back in the day, but at this point, I suspect it’s worth a lot more as a collectors item than as a coupon.
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The cocoa is officially fine and mug cake is delicious.
Edit: I used the Pioneer Woman recipe and subbed butter for the vegetable oil.
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I’ve never found a mug cake recipe I really liked. They all seem to be missing something to me (and I add a little salt even if it isn’t in the recipe). I don’t know what it is…
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