yes
Yes, you can melt shortening and use in a cake recipe. It will change the texture and possibly add heaviness to the cake, but it will still be good.
Yes, in some cake recipes, canola oil can be substituted for shortening.
You could substitute shortening for oil in a cake mix, but it is not recommended. The resulting cake made with shortening will have a noticeably different texture and mouthfeel. Yes you Can. Shortening.. or Hydrogenated Oil is basically poison anyways.
Yes, baker's chocolate and unsweetened chocolate are the same.
The main ingredeints in chocolate cake are flour, eggs, water / oil, chocolate / cocoa, and sugar. Other ingredients can vary, and may include milk, baking powder / soda, chocolate chips, and various other ingredients specific to that recipe.
No you cant
Butter or lard can be used instead of shortening in cakes. Some types of neutral-tasting oils, such as vegetable oil or canola oil, can be used in many cake recipes.
Yes, but the results might not be the same. Liquid oil and solid shortening have slightly different properties. You might need to use slightly less oil for similar results, when "creaming" shortening the results do not work for oil, but this step would be dispensed with when using oil. Butter or lard, which shortening was designed to replace, will get the same results as shortening.
Not shortening. Use about one tablespoon of vegitable oil per pound of chocolate.
no
Yes. It may give it a slightly different flavor, but it will certainly work all right.
It depends on the recipe. Shortening becomes solid at room temperature while vegetable oil does not. So vegetable oil may be substituted for melted shortening only in recipes that do not depend on shortening becoming solid for texture when cooled.