🎂TASTY TREAT TUESDAY 🍫 #9 - The BEST Chocolate Cake

Alright, guys, this week I'm doing something a little different.

Today I'm going to share my favorite go-to chocolate cake recipe, along with the usual step-by-step photos. And then, I'm going to write up a whole other post to show you a step-by-step of how I decorated it, including how I make a buttercream transfer to decorate cakes, when customers have specific images/characters in mind.

But for now, let's talk cake. When I was growing up, my mom always made my sister and I a homemade chocolate cake for our birthdays. It was something we both looked forward to for weeks beforehand. It was fluffy, moist, and of course, very chocolatey. None of those over-baked, dry, bland box mixes for us! (Maybe this was the start of my food-snob tendencies...) When I got a little older, around the age of 10, I fell in love with decorating cakes, and the job of making everyone's birthday cakes fell to me. That recipe was always the go-to. But it wasn't fail-safe. The one I'm going to share today pretty much is. Which is why it's become my new go-to. I still hold a place in my heart for that original recipe (and I'll be sure to grab a copy of it the next time I visit my mom so I can try it again) but this one ticks all the boxes. It's so chocolatey, and fluffy, and never ever dry! The secret here is the oil. Cakes that use oil instead of butter tend to keep their moisture, and don't get over-baked nearly as easily.

Oh, want to know one more thing that I absolutely love about this particular recipe? It's easy! Like, put the stuff in a bowl, and whisk it. Ok, there are a couple more steps than that, but that's the gist of it. There's seriously not much to dislike about this one, you guys.

So, lets get started, so you can try it for yourselves!

If you're new to my blog, here's my usual disclaimer:

My food blog posts are IMAGE HEAVY!

---

I'm going to preface this whole thing with the milk. This recipe calls for buttermilk. BUT as I've stated previously you can cheat the system, and just use soured milk instead. If you have buttermilk, by all means, use it! It has a fantastic flavor, and your taste buds will thank you. However, if you don't have any on hand, and/or don't want to make a special trip to the store, you can make do with just a little vinegar or lemon juice and regular old milk. (1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice, then fill with milk to 1 cup.) Just make sure you put together this lovely little concoction before starting on the dry ingredients, so it has time to work its magic.

The first thing we're going to do is prep your cake pans. Some folks like to use a little parchment paper circle in the bottom of their pan. I think I’ve done this maybe once… if your pans are properly greased and floured, the cake will not stick, and it will release! I like to do a swipe of butter, making sure to get into the corner, and spread it around as much as possible, as well as a quick coating of cooking spray, to make sure I definitely didn’t miss a spot.

(You can see that a couple of my older pans have this weird raised label in the center, so I always make sure to get those spots with butter.)

Then pour in a few spoonfuls of flour, give it a shake all around, and coat the whole thing, sides and all. Shake the excess into the next pan, or into the compost/garbage, but DO NOT pour it back into your flour canister. The stuff that didn’t stick still likely has some oil on it, so isn’t going to perform the same way in a recipe. If you do it right, there shouldn’t be too much waste anyhow.

Now that those are squared away, I want you to sift the dry ingredients together. Yes, you could totally cheat here, and just dump them into the bowl, then use a whisk to kinda-sorta sift them - it will aerate them nicely, and mix them together, but when we're dealing with cocoa powder, you may still have some clumps. And trust me, no one wants to bite into a little puff of unmixed cocoa when they're expecting moist chocolate cake. So please just take the extra minute or 2 to actually sift them!

(See, no lumps!)

Then we're going to get back to that milk concoction. Add your oil, eggs, and vanilla, and pour them into the dry ingredients.

Mix them together until there are few-to-no lumps (it can be a bit tricky if you're using a whisk, like me - it might be a better plan to use a spatula).

And then it’s time to pour in the boiling water. You want to make sure it’s totally incorporated and no lumps remain. I like to use a whisk for this, but start out by carefully folding it. (Because a. you don’t want to make a mess, and b. you don’t want to scald yourself!)

That’s all there is to it! Now you need to pour the batter as evenly as possible into your three prepared 8” pans, give them a little tap on the counter, and pop them into the oven for about a half hour. You’ll know when they’re nearly done because your house will smell like chocolate heaven.

Now, for some reason I haven’t grabbed any photos of the cakes cooling, so we’ll just have to use our imaginations. Haha

We need to let these bad boys cool completely before adding the frosting.

If you want to keep it simple, or are making a cake just for the hell of it, you can totally slap some frosting on with a knife and call it a day. OR if you’re planning on doing a birthday cake for someone special, be sure to come back for my next post, when I’ll show you how to fill it, as well as a step-by-step of how I create buttercream transfers for specific images.

This:

Or this:

Totally up to you!

---

The Recipe

Cake

2 c all purpose flour
2 c granulated sugar
3/4 c cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 c buttermilk (or soured milk)
1 c vegetable oil (feel free to sub melted coconut oil, if that's more your thing - the flavor will be delish!)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c boiling water

Grease and flour three 8" cake pans. Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C).
Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add eggs, milk oil, and vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour in boiling water and mix well again. Make sure there are no lumps. Divide batter evenly between pans, and immediately lower oven temperature to 300°F (149°C) Bake for 28-33 minutes, or until the top springs back, and a toothpick comes out clean (just a few crumbs is ok - not fudgy). Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 10 min, then remove from pans to cooling racks to cool completely.

American Buttercream Frosting

2 c unsalted butter*, softened
4 c powdered sugar
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp cream (or milk, but cream makes a fluffier frosting)

In a stand mixer, using a whisk attachment, beat the butter until smooth, then with mixer on speed 2, gradually add half of the powdered sugar. Turn off mixer, and add vanilla and salt, scrape down sides. Turn mixer back to 2, and continue slowly adding the rest of the sugar. It’ll be fairly thick. Scrape the sides again, and add in your cream, and once it’s incorporated, turn the mixer up to 8 for 3 minutes, to get the frosting very light and fluffy.

*when I’m decorating cakes, I often sub ½ cup of butter for high ratio shortening (not the regular stuff, like Crisco!!!) - this gives a smoother finish, and eliminates jagged edges when piping

---

What's your favorite birthday cake? Do you have a birthday cake tradition?

Have you ever made a birthday cake for someone else?

Remember to check back soon, for the literal icing on the cake!