For many, chocolate cake is an all time favorite. Over the years, I have tired of store bought cakes with all their chemicals and additives and 'short cuts'. To put it bluntly, it is full of unnecessary ingredients (dare I say, crap?). With the exception of Pepperidge Farms. I usually recognize the list of ingredients on their labels and often have those ingredients them in my pantry!
I thought I would share with you my favorite, no fail always a hit chocolate cake recipe. I will give you the straight out recipe and then let you know what my tweaks are as I am always about variation on a theme.
It is from one of my favorite go-to cookbooks based on a PBS Cooking series back in the '90's (Southwest Tastes). This winning recipe was the formulation of Curtis Young. Thanks, Curtis!
Here are my tweaks: I don't usually don't make the middle cream cheese filling recipe. That makes the cake waaaay too rich and it is already rich! Instead, I make more of the frosting recipe and use all of that. Or, cheat and put a store bought creamy canned vanilla frosting with the home made chocolate frosting on the outside. Or, if you want to go all out on the chocolate aspect, you can use the hazel nut chocolate spread found in the peanut butter section of the grocery store.
I don't use the bananas that Curtis calls for. I'll use other fruit purees that I have on hand such as applesauce. I substitute anywhere from a half cup to 2/3rds of a cup of puree. Prune puree is also a good choice, believe it or not! Better still, puree some canned pears along with their juice. I also do not use the dates. Personal preferences. You might want to try his recipe as is first and then make your tweaks the next time you make it (and you will be motivated to as this cake is that good). And, I do not do the nut topping as called for in this recipe. But, you might want to.
OK, so here is my pictorial of the cake making process; the frosting and decorating portion anyway. You can click on any of the images to view a larger version of it:
This is the middle layer. I do use a professional grade turntable. You can get these at Michael's with your 40% off coupon like I did. Get a spatula for frosting cakes with too. A long flat one is what I use (some folks like the off set version).
Hint: I freeze my cakes before I frost them (I bake them the day before I need to frost it). Logic dictates that you let your cakes down down completely before wrapping them up. Wrap them carefully in waxed paper and then put them in plastic bags. Make sure nothing heavy sits on them! By freezing the cakes, they will not fall apart on you when you frost it. I learned this trick when I did cake decorating for a bakery in a former life.
I think it makes a difference to frost the top layer of the cake before you do the sides.
I double up on the frosting recipe to make sure that I have enough. It is very frustrating to have to go back and make more frosting when you are halfway through with frosting your cake!! You can always use the leftover forsting for a batch of cupcakes if you don't devour it all.
Use the right tool for the job. This spatula make s ALL the difference in the world!! So does the turntable.
Yes, buy the cardboard cakes circles. I've tried to avoid it, have cut out my own in the past and wrapped it with foil. Having done all the variations out there, this is the best way to do the job! Note too, how I have my spatula going all the way under the cake to release it and transfer it to the cardboard circle.
Let me emphasize again to make sure you slide the spatula all the way under the cake before lift off!
I found these wonderful chocolate star cookies at Trader Joe's. They were most likely a seasonal thing (the Holidays), but look for something similar to make the finishing touches easy and elegant. The patterns made in the frosting are from that long, flat spatula.
And there you have it. The best home made chocolate cake ever. It never lasts at our home for more than 2 whole days!
