Incredible Chocolate Cake

Cake Week, day 5 of 7: A classic chocolate cake. Nothing fancy, just the most moist, delectable chocolate cake I have ever had. The frosting is unbelievable. The cake and the frosting together are indescribable. Make it, its worth it.

On a side note, we are having a GIVEAWAY starting on Sunday, cause it will be the end of our week of delicious cakes... So make sure you are here for that!

Incredible Chocolate Cake

Recipe Source: melskitchencafe.com

*Makes two 8-inch or 9-inch cake layers or a 9x13. If you are making an 8-inch cake make sure you only fill the pan 2/3 of the way full or it will overflow.

1 1/4 cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 1/2 cups Flour
2 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 1/4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 1/4 teaspoons Salt
2 large Eggs plus 1 large Egg Yolk
1 1/4 cups Warm Water
1 1/4 cups Buttermilk
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the rack in the middle of the oven. Prepare your cake pans by greasing and flouring well. I use Pam Baking spray and it works. Set the pans aside.

2. Sift together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs, yolk, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix with a mixer, handheld or stand, on low speed until smooth, approx. 3 minutes.

3. Pour the batter in the prepared pans. Bake the cakes for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Make sure you don't overbake!

4. Remove the pans from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Gently run a knife around the edges of the pans and unmold the cakes. Let cool completely, top side up, on a wire rack. Trim the tops of the cake layers with a long serrated knife to make them level. Frost as desired.

Vanilla Buttercream
Recipe Source: melskitchencafe.com

*Makes about 8 cups of frosting. Enough to frost 2, 9-inch round cakes.

1 cup Butter, room temperature

6 oz Cream Cheese, room temperature
6 3/4 cups Powdered Sugar 

¼ cup Heavy Cream
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract 

In a large bowl using a mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together until light and creamy, approx. 2 minutes. Add vanilla and mix. Add the powdered sugar in gradually and mix fully after each addition. Cream at low speed until creamy. Pour in the heavy cream and whip until light and fluffy.

The Best Chocolate Cake

For my little girls first birthday we had a ladybug theme. I didnt want everybody's mouths to be red after eating all of the treats, so I made these delicious chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. These are always moist and I promise you wont regret the extra calories. Its totally worth it.

The Best Chocolate Cake

Recipe Source: kevinandamanda.com
 

1 box Devil’s Food Cake
1 pkg Jell-O Instant Chocolate Pudding
1 cup Sour Cream
1 cup Vegetable Oil
4 Eggs, beaten
1/2 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 cups Mini Semisweet Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. In a very large bowl , mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into cake pan(s) of choice. 

3. For cooking time, use the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and usually add 10 mins to whatever it says. Then do the toothpick check, and if it’s not done, check on it every 5 mins after that.

Buttercream Frosting

Recipe Source: bestcupcakerecipes.blogspot.com

 

1 cup Butter, room temperature
8 cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 cup Milk

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1. In an electric mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment or if you don't have an electric mixing bowl use a large bowl and an electric mixer, mix the butter until smooth and creamy, this will take a few minutes.

2. Add 4 cups of the sugar, the milk and vanilla and on low speed mix until combined.
 

3. Add two more cups of sugar and on low speed mix until light and fluffy. Add the remaining two cups of powdered sugar.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

For this first post I decided that simply because the name of my blog is what it is, its only fitting that the first post be cupcakes. That's when I got a call to make cupcakes for a friends baby shower. So I scoured the internet to find a recipe and found the perfect one. 

These are not just any cupcakes mind you, they are one of the most moist, delicious cupcakes I have had in a very, very long time. Red Velvet. I am sure everybody has had red velvet before but I had never been so lucky. So after searching high and low, after looking at all of the reviews on several different sites I found it. I also read along the way that the perfect frosting to go with red velvet cake is cream cheese. So that recipe follows the cupcake recipe. These are a perfect dessert. Who doesn't love cupcakes?

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe Source: bestcupcakerecipes.blogspot.com

2 1/2 cups sifted Cake Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 oz. Red Food Coloring (two bottles)
1/2 cup unsalted Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups Sugar
2 Eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tsp Vinegar
1 tsp Baking Soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.

2. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a smaller bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps and set aside.

3. In a large bowl beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

4. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Be careful as it will fizz so don't do it in a shallow bowl. Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Fill cupcake cups with cake batter until they are a 2/3 full. I ended up with 17 cupcakes. Place muffin tins in your preheated oven. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. The cupcakes are done when you can insert a toothpick into the center of a cupcake in the center of the tin and it comes out clean!

5. Cool the cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup Butter

8 oz Cream Cheese, Softened

3 cups Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

All of the ingredients need to be at room temperature. In a mixing bowl, mix butter on medium speed until light and creamy. Add cream cheese and mix until fluffy. Slowly add the sugar one cup at a time. Finally add the vanilla and mix until creamy.