I don't know if it's the best, but certainly one good ingredient is mashed potatoes. Already known for helping keep breads moist (see, for ex, James Beard recipe for refrigerator [rise] potato bread), some are using it for sweet cakes, especially for those who avoid gluten.
Lemon and orange cake recipe from BBC:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1162651/lemon-and-orange-cake
I just made Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake and the main liquid was buttermilk - it was the moistest cake I have ever made so you may want to give that a try.
You can add a Tablespoon of corn syrup or Hersey's Chocolate syrup (which is basically just chocolate flavored corn syrup), that always seems to make a difference for my cakes. Honey might work too, it's high in fructose as well. I'm not sure why this works, but it's always worked for me (added chocolate syrup to a depression cake about 5 years ago and was amazed by the difference, have experimented since).
Otherwise replace some of the butter with oil.
Or do what people used to do and moisten your cake with syrup (with or without spirits) or melted jam or jelly between the layers and before frosting.
N. 1 – don't over cook!
N. 2 – if, like me, the idea of using anything other than butter depresses you greatly, use extra! Extra butter will make a cake more dense, but if it is a rustic cake or low-flour, that won't matter. If you are looking for lightness & rise 50% more butter might be too much.
Applesauce does make a cake moist, but also unpleasantly sticky. (When my daughter was in high school, we actually did an experiment for her science class that demonstrated this. ) I can't even imagine what diet coke will do, but I know that artificial sweeteners get bitter when heated. Shirley Corriher (Bakewise) says that oil makes cakes moist because it coats the proteins in the flour and prevents them from absorbing liquid in the batter and making gluten. So you could substitute some neutral oil for part of the butter in the recipe, or use a recipe that has oil as the fat instead of butter. Also, once you add the flour to the wet ingredients, don't over mix the batter. That will keep the cake from developing gluten and getting tough. I hope your cake turns out delicious.
This is the BEST detailed response I've found. Breaking the science of it down makes it easier to understand and branch off from there. This makes cooking fun and adventurous! Thank you!
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Lemon and orange cake recipe from BBC:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1162651/lemon-and-orange-cake
the moister the crumb.
Otherwise replace some of the butter with oil.
Or do what people used to do and moisten your cake with syrup (with or without spirits) or melted jam or jelly between the layers and before frosting.
N. 2 – if, like me, the idea of using anything other than butter depresses you greatly, use extra! Extra butter will make a cake more dense, but if it is a rustic cake or low-flour, that won't matter. If you are looking for lightness & rise 50% more butter might be too much.