How To Make Chocolate Ladyfingers (+VIDEO)

Today, I'm sharing how to make chocolate ladyfingers with 5 simple steps.

Follow the essential tips to make thick and voluminous chocolate ladyfingers successful at home!

chocolate ladyfingers rising in the oven

💛 What I love about the chocolate ladyfingers:

You'll only need 6 ingredients you can find easily at grocery stores.
It's easy to make: Follow the simple 5 steps!
Piping the sponge batter is fun! Change the thickness/shape and enjoy many versions.
The maximum amount of cocoa powder is added to make it taste chocolatey enough without ruining the texture and volume.

💬 Make Charlotte cake, tiramisu, or any chocolate cake using this ladyfinger! This month, I made a Black Forest Charlotte cake using them.

In this post, you'll learn essential baking tips such as:

How much should we whip the meringue?
How to avoid flat ladyfingers
Benefits of dusting powdered sugar on top of the ladyfingers
How to know if it is baked enough

... and so much more!

Let's get started.

chocolate ladyfingers cooling down on a table

Jump to:

📌 What's In Chocolate Ladyfingers
📌 How To Make Chocolate Ladyfingers
📌 Uses For Chocolate Ladyfingers
📌 Fluffy Chocolate Sponge Cake
📌 Frequently Asked Questions
📌 VIDEO: Black Forest Charlotte Cake
📌 Printable Recipe
Chocolate Ladyfingers
📌 Pin It!

📌 What's In Chocolate Ladyfingers

ingredients to make chocolate ladyfingers

Egg
- Separate it with egg white and yolks and combine them later.
Granulated sugar
- It's added to the meringue.
All-purpose flour
- You can also use cake flour instead if it's available. The texture gets softer with it.
Cocoa powder
- We add a good amount of it so the sponge cake tastes chocolatey enough.
Salt
- It matches so well with the chocolate flavor.
Powdered sugar
- We dust it on top of the sponge batter at the very end before baking it.
- It helps the sponge to rise more in the oven.

📌 How To Make Chocolate Ladyfingers

5 Steps To Make Chocolate Ladyfingers

Whip egg white to make meringue.
1. Add half of the sugar once the meringue looks bubbly, like shampoo.
2. And add the rest of the sugar when it looks very fluffy.
3. Whip until it looks very fluffy and stiff.
Add yolks and mix roughly.
- Be careful not to over-mix. Blending about 50% is just enough!
Add sifted flour and mix.
- Add half of the flour and fold until it's mixed roughly.
- Add the rest and mix just until you don't see any flour. Be careful not to over-mix it!
Pipe it right away and dust some powdered sugar on top.
Bake at 395 F | 200 C for 6 - 7 mins.
- Touch the surface and check: It should bounce back very gently.
- Adjust the time depending on the size and how thick they are.

📝 More Tips With Images

Now, let me share detailed tips on each step, which are all crucial for making chocolate ladyfingers.

Preparation:

I like to start with some preparations, such as:

Set up parchment paper (or a mat) on a tray.
Set up the pastry tip in a pastry bag. (I used a 0.5" pastry tip today.)
Sift dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
Preheat the oven: 395 F | 200 C

sifting all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

sifted all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

Step 1: Whip egg white to make meringue.

👩🏻‍🍳 Ladyfingers are often made with the "biscuit method."
Whenever the sponge is called "Biscuit" sponge cake, it's made by separating egg white and yolk, whipping the meringue (Sometimes we whip yolks as well.), and combining them later.

Ensure that there are no yolks, oil, or liquids mixed in egg white so that it whips well.

⚠️ Oil in yolks prevents the egg white from whipping well to create a fluffy meringue. Separate them carefully!

Add about half of the sugar once the meringue looks very bubbly like shampoo:

And add the rest when it looks very fluffy like this:

It is done when it looks very fluffy and stiff:

💬 Make a stiff and fluffy meringue since we are piping the sponge batter today. - When you use a loose meringue, the batter gets too sloppy after piping it.

Step 2: Add yolks and mix.

Next, add yolks and mix very roughly like this:

💬 The oil in yolks starts popping air bubbles in the meringue, so we do not want to take too much time here. You can mix very roughly and go to the next process!

💬 Scrape off the meringue on the side of the bowl with a spatula so that the flour is not sticking to the side too much.

Step 3: Add sifted flour and mix.

Immediately add the sifted flour and start folding.

👩🏻‍🍳 It's very important to move as fast as you can after the meringue is done. The air bubbles of meringue slowly disappear, especially after the flour is added.

You can add all of it at once, but I added dividing it in half today;

Add half of the flour first and mix roughly:

adding flours to the meringue to make chocolate biscuit sponge cake

mixing flours and the meringue to make chocolate biscuit sponge cake

Once the flour is roughly mixed, add the rest and continue folding until you don't see any flour:

adding the rest of flours to the meringue to make chocolate biscuit sponge cake

mixed flours and the meringue to make chocolate biscuit sponge cake

⚠️ It's essential not to over-mix the batter. Once you don't see any flour, stop right away and start piping. The batter gets looser when you overmix.

How to fold the batter

If you're not confident about how to fold, watch this video tutorial; I shared my four tips to fold very easily.

You can also watch the video tutorial of this recipe to check how I folded it this time.

Step 4: Pipe it and dust powdered sugar on top.

I like to divide the batter in half and wrap each of them to pipe them easily:

the batter to make chocolate biscuit sponge cake

And pipe it right away!

piping the sponge batter for chocolate ladyfingers

💬 You can pipe about 40 - 48 ladyfingers (a little over 3 inches long) with a 0.5" pastry tip. Use any tip you like!

piping the sponge batter to make black forest charlotte cake

Dust some powdered sugar on top.

dusting powdered sugar on top of biscuit sponge cake batter

The benefits of dusting powdered sugar on top of ladyfingers

It helps the sponge to rise more.
It also makes this sponge a little bit more moist.

piped biscuit sponge cake batter right before baking them

Step 5: Bake at 395 F | 200 C for 6 - 7 mins

baking the chocolate sponge to make black forest charlotte cake

⚠️ Try not to open the oven door until the very end to get the best result.

Touch the surface and check: It should bounce back very gently.

Let them cool on a cooling rack.

removing chocolate ladyfingers from parchment paper

And remove them from parchment paper.

📌 Uses For Chocolate Ladyfingers

For chocolate cake: You can make Charlotte cake, tiramisu, or any chocolate cake using this ladyfinger. This sponge is ideal, especially when you want to make it soak up a lot of syrup.
As a finger biscuit: Just a little something to add with tea/coffee! You can also dip in chocolate to make the decadent version. Or bake it longer to make it very crispy!

Black Forest Charlotte Cake

I made a Black Forest Charlotte cake using the chocolate ladyfingers. Check out the post to see how you can make it!

Classic Black Forest Cake

Also, check out my black forest cake (video tutorial) on my Youtube channel to see how to make the classic version.

📌 Fluffy Chocolate Sponge Cake

Finally, check out my basic chocolate sponge cake recipe if you are looking for a thick, fluffy chocolate cake to bake in a pan.

The texture is finer and moister than ladyfingers.

📌 Frequently Asked Questions

How should I store it, and what's the shelf-life?

Use it right away, or wrap it tightly. Store it in the fridge for up to a few days. You can also freeze them if you want to store them for a more extended period.

Why is butter not added to the sponge?

It's not added to the ladyfingers because the butter or oil makes the batter looser. I want the ladyfingers to hold a nice shape after piping them, especially when it's shown and not hidden in a cake. You can add butter or oil if it doesn't matter for your dessert.

Can I add flavors to the batter?

Yes, you can! But be careful not to add too much since it can make the batter looser. Add it before adding flour or at the same time.

📌 VIDEO: Black Forest Charlotte Cake

To learn how to make it visually and have a deeper understanding of all, watch the video! (You can see how to make the chocolate ladyfingers at the beginning of the video.)