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Melted chocolate is known to seize badly if it comes into contact with small amounts of water. Ideally, when wetted more and mixed, it should get better again, although I think I remember cases where this didn't work.

I wonder what would happen if the chocolate is supposed to be used in a cake batter afterwards. Has somebody had experience with this? Does seized chocolate bake into a nice smooth cake, does it create an unpleasant grainy cake, or is it somewhere in between? How much does the texture differ? Also, if there are noticeable differences, does it matter if the chocolate seized due to water contact or to overheating?

rumtscho
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Using seized chocolate in a cake recipe is going to impact the texture of the cake. The chocolate can't distribute properly throughout the batter, and it won't incorporate cleanly during baking, so you will end up, at best, with inconsistent flavor (and possibly color, depending on other ingredients in the recipe) throughout the cake.

Using chocolate that seized because of contact with water is not as likely to produce a grainy texture and shouldn't affect the overall flavor (except as noted above). Overheated chocolate, however, will affect the flavor and the texture, giving the cake a slightly burned taste and a grainy/gritty texture.

In general, you're better off just starting over with the chocolate than trying to use it after it has seized.

user50496
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    I wonder if the unevenness could be counteracted with radical mechanical means (eg pulverizing the cooled chocolate in a blender)? – rackandboneman Dec 09 '16 at 13:55
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    Once chocolate has seized, there really isn't much you can do with it. Putting the cooled chocolate in a blender might reduce the size of grainy, gritty bits, but the chocolate still isn't going to incorporate properly. You want the chocolate to bind to the other ingredients during baking to produce a rich, unified flavor and texture. Using seized chocolate will cause the chocolate to be "aloof" from the other ingredients and won't give the flavor or texture you were hoping for. – user50496 Dec 10 '16 at 18:19