I made chocolate cake last week because Nic specifically requested for it. My husband loves chocolate cake and we have had many adventures going around various cafes to sample their chocolate cakes. I figured it was high time I learned how to... think of how much money we'd save!
Since it was my first time making chocolate cake from scratch (because before this I had been making the ready mix version by Betty Crocker), I decided to start with a recipe from my trusty Joy of Baking website. There were so many different types to choose from and I eventually settled on her Chocolate Butter Cake.
This is what hers looked like:
Mouth-watering right? So I off I went!
The recipe called for 4 ounces of chopped unsweetened chocolate. I was using the Nestle unsweetened chocolate bar and although it clearly states on the package that each square was half an ounce, I only chopped up 4 squares for some reason. So I started with 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate.
You also need 1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder. I used Valrhona.
Mix the two and add 1 cup of boiling water to dissolve the chocolate in.
Give it a mix and let it stand to cool while you mix the rest of the ingredients.
In a bowl, mix 2 1/4 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp of salt. In the blow of your mixer, cream 1 cup of unsalted butter and 2 cups of white sugar. Add in 3 large eggs, one at a time and 2 tsp of vanilla extract. Then add the chocolate mixture, scraping down the bowl as you go.
Add the flour mixture in 3 portions, interspersed with 1 cup of milk.
So far so good.
The original recipe said to pour the mixture into 2 9-inch cake pans. Here is when things went south for me. I had two 8 inch pans and figured an inch wouldn't make a difference. Pouring out the batter into my two pans, I found them to be a bit too full. Still, instead of having the sense to separate it, I went ahead to put the 1st pan in the oven. I couldn't fit two pans in there side by side and at least I had the sense that the cake would rise and that I couldn't put two shelves in.
It baked for about half an hour at 177 degrees C.
And then disaster struck. As I was taking the first pan out of the oven, the weight of the cake and my weak single handed grip resulted in the cake pan slipping out of my hand and landing in a heap on the cabinet. I was devastated. I let out a slew of colorful expletives. I wanted to cry. Then I tried to salvage what I could before throwing the rest of it away.
I couldn't bear to throw away the whole thing. Plus, it actually tasted kinda good and it would just be a horrible waste.
Suddenly, I remembered something I had spotted online earlier in the week! It was one of the cutest ideas I'd seen in a while and I had been telling Nic about how I wanted to try it: Cake in a Jar!
Seriously, how cute is this? And so clever too! No more worrying about the frosting getting everywhere when you're transporting this cake. I had actually found it on a wedding site as an idea for an edible favor and thought it was simply brilliant.
So I dug around for the jars I had lying in my drawers and decided to make these myself.
(Meanwhile, I cleaned up the 1st pan, split the second pan's batter into two pans and was able to bake them on two shelves since I knew they wouldn't rise out of the pan too high this time. They came out rather perfectly after about 15 minutes.)
I went on to make the frosting. The recipe called for 5 ounces but I only 4 so I used what I had. First, melt the chocolate in a double-boiler. When melted, place the chocolate, 1/3 cup of milk, 4 cups of icing sugar, 1/8 tsp of salt and 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract in your mixer and beat well. Slowly beat in 1/2 cup of softened butter and beat on high. You can add more milk or sugar if necessary to achieve a nice spreading consistency. I didn't add much and my icing was still a little runny.
I was too lazy to trim the dome of my cake off (it didn't look that high to me!) and went straight onto spreading the icing on.
But my laziness resulted in my final cake looking pretty stupid as the top layer of cake split down the middle and the two halves slid down the sides of the domed slope of my bottom layer and I ended up having a lopsided cake. As you can understand, I didn't take any photos of it.
Instead, I went back to my jars. Using the broken cake, I alternated layers of cake and icing. I suppose doing this with cake and icing of different colors has a better effect but it worked out pretty good all the same I think.
I was so glad I managed to save the disaster cake and try out the cake in a jar idea. It definitely also made it much easier to give some of it away.
Taste-wise, I think it was one of the yummiest cakes I've ever made. No doubt my cake looked hideous and nothing like the cake it was supposed to look like but frankly, when we all got down to eating it, the looks really didn't matter.
I eventually did take a photo of my cake... when we were almost done eating it. It kept pretty well in the fridge for a couple of days and honestly, didn't last more than a few days as we ate most of it.
The cake had a lush rich chocolately taste and a moist dense texture. The icing was also not too sweet and complimented the cake perfectly. It was seriously tasty.
This is one cake that I'll definitely make again!
Make your own! The full recipe can be found here.
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