Why does this recipe call for boiling water?

ax2016

http://addapinch.com/cooking/the-best-chocolate-cake-recipe-ever/

I recently baked a chocolate cake and I used this recipe. I thought it was strange that the recipe called for boiling water since I thought that double activating baking powder was supposed to activate in the heat of the oven and by adding hot water it would activate it prematurely.

The batter was very runny and bubbly but the recipe turned out pretty well. Can someone explain the purpose of the boiling water? Am I being ignorant of something?

Thanks.

Matt_67991

Maybe it is to "brew" the coffee. The recipe reminds me a bit like of moosewood chocolate cake, which uses coffee as the liquid, and also works fine with instant "espresso".

I think there is some stuff with hot water activating gluten, but it is a low enough chunk of the weight that it probably doesn't matter too much. I imagine the recipe would work pretty much the same with cold water.

Also, I think the double acting is only an issue if you're going to be storing uncooked batter.