I recently decided to start trying my hand at cake making and decorating. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy cupcake and cookie making/decorating, but each kind of baked goody presents a unique challenge. For me, it’s the variation that keeps it interesting! So don’t worry, I’ll get back to cupcakes and cookies, and I’ll throw in some fun and easy recipes in the not-too-distant future, but today I want to talk about cake making and decorating. Now, I’d like to preface this by saying I am, by no means, a cake expert. AT ALL. Like, not even in the slightest. But I think the very fact that I’m not an expert will help me explain to any other beginners out there how to make and assemble the perfect cake. So, let’s start with a perfectly chocolately cake recipe! Part 1: cake making. Stay tuned for Part 2: cake assembly!
The Perfect Chocolate Cake
Makes two 8″ cakes (about 1 1/2″-2″ high)
What you’ll need:
2 sticks (227 grams) butter
2 bars (200 grams) dark chocolate
1 cup milk (preferably whole milk, if you have it)
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
In order to assemble and decorate the perfect cake, you need a good foundation. As in you need a good cake. The above recipe is my absolute-favorite-ultra-top-secret (ok, maybe not top secret, but I don’t share it with just anyone… So shhhhh) chocolate cake recipe. It makes an awesome and super moist cake to decorate. To make this cake, you’ll want to melt your butter in a microwave safe bowl. Add your milk and continue heating until the mixture is hot (don’t worry if the milk and butter separate so long as they’re hot). Once you have a hot mixture, break up your dark chocolate and stir it in with a rubber spatula. Keep stirring until the chocolate is completely melted, reheating it in 10 second increments if it starts to get cool.
Whisk in your baking cocoa, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract until completely combined. One at a time, start adding and whisking in your eggs. Be prepared to give you stirring arm a mini-workout on this step; Geez those eggs thicken the batter! Once your eggs are all stirred in, add your baking soda, baking powder, and, one cup at a time, your all purpose flour. Be prepared for some even thicker batter! “Oh, you think my stirring arm is looking rather muscular these days? Why thank you for noticing.”
Pour half of your batter into an 8″ cake pan. I recommend lining just the bottom with parchment paper for ease in removing it later. You can line all the way up the sides like I did in the picture above, but your won’t have clean edges like the first picture, where I had lined only the bottom of the pan (thanks to ButterYum for the suggestion). Bake your at 350* Fahrenheit (175* Celsius) for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. If your cake has puffed up and is no longer flat after baking, don’t worry! You can flatten out that top by pressing down on it with a damp paper towel (preferably several layers thick so as not to burn your hands on lava-hot cake. Wait, did someone say lava cake?!).
Go ahead and let your cakes cool down a bit before wrapping them up, but I recommend wrapping them while they’re still slightly warm. This will help them retain some of their moisture. Usually, when I’m making cakes to decorate, I like to make my cakes at least several days in advance. I then set my (double) wrapped cakes in the refrigerator so they’re nice and firm by the time I want to work with them (you can also freeze them if you’re making them more than a few days in advance). And don’t worry, since you wrapped them while they were still warm, they’re not going to dry out. So yes, I’m saying you can make your cakes in advance AND they’ll still be moist like they were baked a few hours ago. Awesome? I know!
Stay tuned for Part 2: The Assembly! Happy baking!
Recipe adapted from Cake. Paper. Party.
This looks pretty deliciaous! I look forward to the next post.
I’m sorry to say that I can’t correct the spelling 🙁
Cute post. I’ve been baking cakes for years. I recommend only lining the bottom of your pan with parchment. Also, I highly recommend Baker’s Joy. It’s an oil and flour spray – nothing sticks when you use that. I wouldn’t dream of baking a wedding cake without it.
Thank you for the suggestion! I’m afraid we don’t have some of those wonderful products like Baker’s Joy here in Norway, but I’ll have to check it out next time I’m back in the States. 🙂
Oh dear, I didn’t realize you were in Norway – wow! You can make a homemade version by combining equal parts vegetable shortening, cooking oil, and flour. Blend together and brush on the bottom and sides of your cake pans.
Thanks for the tip! I’m always looking for stuff I can make here to imitate products I used to the in the States. I can’t wait to try it out! 🙂
I love cake baking. There’s something so therapeutic about doing all the mixing and just pouring it into a greased cake pan. I love it!!! This chocolate cake looks amazing! It looks nice and fudge-y!!
I agree! Baking, in general, is a very therapeutic process. 🙂
My mouth is watering. Can’t wait to use this recipe!
You’ll have to let me know what you thought of it if you try it out! 🙂
Looks delicious. I have a problem with my cakes being too dry. Any suggestions?
My experience with cupcakes and cakes has led me to the conclusion that there tend to be two general categories of cakes/cupcakes: 1. light and fluffy and 2. dense and moist. Where your cake/cupcake falls depends mostly on the ratio of ingredients you use. Overly simplified: more liquids/fats=more dense and moist, more dry ingredients=lighter and drier. This cake recipe is very dense and very moist. If you look at the ingredient quantities, you’ll notice that there’s quite a bit of butter, milk, and other wet ingredients in comparison to the amount of dry ingredients. The number of eggs you use will also make a difference, in part because they’re made up of mostly liquid and help provide some of the structural integrity in your cake/cupcake. The Cake Blog has a wonderful article on the effects of eggs in cakes, which you can find here: http://thecakeblog.com/2011/11/eggsactly-perfect-baking.html I hope this helps get you on the right track! Let me know if you have any further questions! 🙂