After brunch on Saturday, Mr. W and I returned to my place. We had a lot of catching up to do but rather than sitting on the couch and chatting it up, I decided to bake a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. What a mistake. I don't know if it was the distraction of talking while baking or cooking on a full stomach but something went wrong.
The final product looked fine and tasted okay but it was very much brownie like and even now I'm not sure where I went wrong. I reluctantly share this recipe. I'm only doing it in case you want a brownie like cake or you come across it and aren't sure what it's gonna look or taste like. Unfortunately, I can no longer find the source of this recipe otherwise I'd definitely go back and ask questions. I'll try another chocolate cake recipe soon but here's what I did.
Ingredients
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tbs white vinegar
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter, cut in pieces
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Butter and flour 2 round cake pans. I used 9 inch pans. Stir together milk and vinegar in mixing cup and let curdle. Melt chocolate, butter and water in a large bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water whisking until smooth. DING DING DING - AS I'M TYPING THIS I REALIZE I DIDN'T ADD THE WATER!! - ugh definitely a case of baking while distracted!
Remove chocolate from heat and cool slightly. Beat sugar into chocolate mixture with an electric mixer. Add eggs 1 at a time and beat well after each addition then beat in vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda and salt together. Add flour mixture to chocolate and beat on low speed until combined. Add milk and beat on high speed for a couple of minutes.
Dived batter evenly between cake pans. Bake for about 30 - 35 minutes until tops of cake spring back when touched lightly. Cool cake on racks for 5 minutes then invert onto rack to cool completely.
While I shook my head puzzled about why my cake didn't rise as much as it usually does, I started working on the frosting.
Ingredients
3 cups confectioners' sugar
2 sticks butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs whipping cream
With a hand mixer, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low until well blended then increase to medium and mix for a 2 more minutes. Add vanilla and cream then beat for another 3 minutes until mixture is light enough to be spreadable.
Woweee thats some sweet frosting. Not sure why I was so shocked at the sweetness I mean look at what I put in there?! To frost the cake, but one layer top down and frost then add the other layer bottom down. Frost the top and around the sides. Apply frosting liberally. I added chocolate chips on top because the cake looked so boring. They happened to fall into a perfect T ;-)
Like I said, it's not that the cake tasted bad, it just didn't taste like the cakes I normally make, it tasted much more like a brownie. Hopefully, Mr. W will vouch for the taste (he had a huge piece for breakfast on Sunday!) Now that I figured out what my mistake was, I may try this recipe again - but the next cake I make will probably be that awesome red velvet cake that I've yet to mess up.
Hungry yet?
