Hello Bakers and Sweeties,
Sunday I got the privilege to make a cake for my sister's 30th birthday. While it was only supposed to serve 4 and a half, you can never have too much cake! It was nice having total control of what to make, but seeing as though she's a baker too, I had to bring my A game. So, I rolled out my favorite Chocolate Cake recipe that my family has used for years. Even my brother, who doesn't like cake, loves this cake. It's foolproof. I've never gotten a single complaint about this cake.
Well, lets get to it then!
First: Prep Time - Now, there are many ways to prep your pans for baking. When I first started, I was using pan spray, which I feel is typical. Then I learned at school that the gluten in the flower helps the cake rise. If the sides of the pan are spayed, the gluten has nothing to hold onto as it climbs up the pan. Usually this results with a dome shape in the middle of your cake. Then you have to cut it off, risk being uneven, have scrap leftover, not ideal.
​
I learned that all you have to do is line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. At first I didn't believe it either. Then I tried it. I was blown away by the result and have never used pan spray in my cake pans ever again. I still had a little bit of a problem getting the cakes out of the pan, usually the odd shaped pans, i.e. dome, giant cupcake. With the help of some more experienced bakers from a social media group, I learned about this stuff called "goop". Well, that sounds appealing... not. "Goop" is 1 part shortening (non-flavored), 1 part vegetable oil, 1 part flour. Use a hand mixer to get it nice and smooth.
Plop some into your pans and use a paper towel to spread the goop. Make sure not to get clumps in the creases of the pan or it'll bake into the cake. While edible, it doesn't taste all that great. Store your extra in a container and refrigerate. It'll last for months this way. It may separate, so you might have to mix it up once in a while. Now, onto the baking.
The recipe I use, I add all of my dry ingredients into my mixer first, then my wet. When doing it this way you have to be careful not to over mix the flower, and to keep scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure it's all fully incorporated.
After baking at 350 degrees for 25-30 minuets, pull them out and let them cool. PRO TIP: Never ice/frost a cake while it's warm. If you are using a buttercream frosting, butter melts at 92 degrees. Whipped frostings are even more sensitive, so watch out! While my cakes are cooling, this is when I make my buttercream frosting. My buttercream has changed a little bit over the years, but I think I have found a happy medium. I use this as my base for all of my frostings. Sometimes I will add ingredients or totally replace some. To make the Caramel frosting, I added 1 Tbs of caramel syrup.
Buttercream frosting:
8 oz (1 cup) Unsalted Butter
16 oz Powdered Sugar
1 tbs Vanilla Extract
1 tbs Heavy Whipping Cream
That's it!
After the frosting is made, I set up my first cake layer and pipe a layer of frosting to cover the top of the cake. Then I take my second layer and place it upside down on top. I do this to make sure that the top of the cake is flat and even. It makes frosting so much easier. After that, I use a piping bag and pipe frosting all around the outside of the cake, covering pretty much all of the sides. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of this process. I then use a tool, much like one you use for drywall, and scrape the sides of the cake, taking off the excess frosting and creating a smooth look. This took me so long to get food at. I still have problems with it, but practice makes perfect. On to the drip.
I have done a handful of drip cakes, but none of them have come out as well as this one, because I’ve finally learned how to make a perfect ganache. When making ganache for drip cakes, you want it to be a little thicker than the chocolate syrup you get at the store to put on ice cream.it will harden up to an almost fudge like consistency. You can use your left overs to put inside chocolates, use it to frost another cake, or use as a filling. When you are not using it, keep it in the refrigerator. You can always re-heat it to melt it down. Almost every recipe I have seen is a 1:1 (1 to 1) ratio of heavy cream to chocolate chips. Every time I try that way, it ends up too runny. Here’s what I used this time:
Chocolate Ganache
2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
4 cups Milk Chocolate Chips (you can use whatever chocolate you’d like)
In a small saucepan, heat up your whipping cream, stirring lightly the whole time so you don’t curdle it. In a large separate bowl, measure out your chocolate chips. Once your cream is just starting to bubble, take it off the stove and pour into the bowl with the chocolate chips. Use a whisk to combine the ingredients until you have a totally smooth consistency. I had originally only used 3 cups of chocolate chips, but noticed it wasn’t setting hard enough, so I added one more. Wait about 10 minuets to let it cool before pouring on to the cake. To apply the ganache, pour some of your ganache into a liquid measuring cup. Make sure your cake is cold, this will help the ganache harden as you pour. Start pouring in the middle of your cake and work your way out. Let it do its thing. Feel free to go back and fill in any gaps.
Feel free to do anything you’d like to decorate the top. I took some of my extra buttercream and made dollops of frosting on top, then places Rollo candies on alternating dollops.
I also used the left over to make cupcakes. Drizzled some caramel on top.
I'm going to be doing some tutorials for some Mother's Day treats. Leave a comment or send me a message what you would love to learn how to make your mom.
Stay sweet!
The Sugar Siren