Chocolate Angel Food Cake

Okay, okay. I haven't been very consistent with posting. I just do picture-dumps occasionally when I have some time and upload my photos and realize that hey, I actually took pictures of things I cooked or baked or whatever! I should upload them in bulk (and possibly forget about them)! I made this a while ago when my college roommate Lucy came to visit me in SF. She's not a fan of cake with frosting, and I know she's made angel food cake before, so I decided to give it a try.

I don't think I even know what angel food cake is supposed to taste like, but this didn't really fulfill my expectations. It was decent, but there was something about it (maybe the lack of a huge pile of frosting?) that made it not my ideal cake.

Chocolate Angel Food Cake

Recipe from u Try.it

Preheat oven to 325 degree F.  Place un-greased angel food cake pan on the baking sheet.  

In a large mixing bowl, sift cake flour, cocoa powder and 3/4 cup of sugar together.  

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites, water, cream of tartar and salt together until foamy.   Then, add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar in a steady stream. 

Add coffee mixture and vanilla extract, beat until stiff peak forms.

Sprinkle 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the dry ingredient mixture onto the egg white mixture.  With a rubber spatula, gently fold the dry ingredient into the meringue.  Be careful not to deflate the foam.

Pour batter into a 9 1/2-inch un-greased angel food cake pan. A 10-inch pan would work just as find if that's what you've got.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake and comes out clean.  Then, invert cake pan on a wiring rack too cool for at least one hour, or until completely cooled.  This step is to ensure the cake stays nice and tall in the cooling process.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

If you're looking for something to make for breakfast--for guests, family, work, yourself--look no further. Please, stop looking and just try this recipe. It's really, really good, and really, really easy. I've always wanted to try making coffee cake and I finally did it! I didn't eat it with coffee--you don't have to--but it's a delicious cake and was perfectly dense and just...great. I'm not sure what coffee cake is supposed to taste like, actually, but I think it should taste like this one. My older brother liked it a lot, too--and he's a coffee lover and usually doesn't care for most of the things I make--so I'm definitely liking this recipe.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake
Recipe adapted by The Baker Chick from King Arthur's Flour

Streusel topping
2/3 cups granulated sugar
pinch of  salt (if you use unsalted butter)
3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling
1 cup brown sugar, light or dark
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder (for color not for taste- you can leave it out if you want.)

Cake
3/4 cup butter softened
1 teaspoon salt (1 ¼ teaspoons if you use unsalted butter)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt. (regular yogurt would also be ok.)
1 1/4 cups milk (anything from skim to whole)
3 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan, or two 9" round cake pans.

Make the topping by whisking together the sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Add the melted butter, stirring till well combined. Set the topping aside.

Make the filling by mixing together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. Set it aside.

To make the cake: In a large bowl, beat together the butter, salt, sugars, baking powder, and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt and milk till well combined. You don't need to whisk out all the lumps.

Add the flour to the butter mixture alternately with the milk/yogurt mixture, beating gently to combine.

Pour/spread half the batter (about 3 cups) into the prepared pan(s), spreading all the way to the edges. If you're using two 9" round pans, spread 1 1/3 cups batter in each pan.

Sprinkle the filling evenly atop the batter.

Gently spread the remaining batter atop the filling. Use a table knife to gently swirl the filling into the batter, as though you were making a marble cake. Don't combine filling and batter thoroughly; just swirl the filling through the batter.

Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.

Bake the cake until it's a dark golden brown around the edges; medium-golden with no light patches showing on top, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes for the 9" x 13" pan, 50 to 55 minutes for the 9" round pans. When pressed gently in the middle, the cake should spring back.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before cutting and serving. Serve cake right from the pan.

Note: If you wanna make this ahead of time for a brunch or something just cover it tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Bake as directed, but you may need to add 5 mins extra or so since the batter will be cold!

Asian Fruit Cake 2

Remember THIS? Yeah, well, I did it again. And this time it didn't turn out half as well. Yes, I made the cake 2 days before graduation. Yes, I assembled the cake the day before graduation. But still, I could have done better. I forgot the vinegar, and I'm blaming that for why the cake didn't rise, though I didn't buy new baking powder and used the one that I got in August, so that could have been a problem too. Then I didn't have the appropriate storage stuff to keep the cake from drying out overnight before I frosted it, so the plastic wrap didn't really work and the cake got a little hard on the bottoms of each layer. Kind of annoying. But apparently my grandma kept on thinking about this cake after she ate it, and it was really alright, though not light (the day I baked it it was light, because I ate a little piece that fell off, but the next day it was a little more dense).

That being said, still try this recipe! It's beautiful! But eat it the day of, and make sure if you're storing it, you store it properly!

Andes Mint Cake

I made this cake for my friend Steven's birthday--the last birthday everyone celebrated at college, and the last time we all got together to party. It was a great time. I spent most of the day making it (it was also somewhat for my boyfriend, whose birthday was after graduation) and it was really worth it. The party was a surprise party for Steven: I was planning it for a while and some of my friends said they'd help out, so we got a handful of people invited to a Facebook event, but of course Steven has tons of friends so there was well over just a handful of people there. It was a funny surprise story though: we convinced him to come over but it took way too long to actually come because he was watching YouTube videos. My apartment was overheated and everyone was dying. We thought Steven might have a feeling we were doing a surprise party, so we shoved 2/3 of the people into my roommates' rooms, and when he got there about 7 of us yelled "surprise" and told him we were playing Birthday Settlers (of Catan). We started the game and then I "had to go to the bathroom", and instead of me coming back, one of Steven's friends who wouldn't have been in my apartment came out instead, and tricked Steven into being blindfolded. While blindfolded the rest of the guests came into the room, and when Steven took off the blindfold, somehow we had been quiet enough that he was really surprised to see everyone! So it was really successful--pretty proud of that surprise working out!

This cake's frosting didn't work perfectly. It was too soupy even after I put it in the freezer for a couple of hours. I think it was just way too hot in my apartment. I really want my cakes to turn out perfectly like the pictures the original maker posts, but mine always look lopsided...I guess they look more homemade, though. Even though people only got tiny slices of this cake (there were tons of people at the party!), I got lots of compliments on this one!

Andes Mint Cake
Recipe from mommiecooks

For the Cake:
1 8 Oz. Bag Andes Mints
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
3 Oz. Dark Chocolate
1 Cup Boiling Water
11/2 Sticks Unsalted Butter (12 Tbsp or 3/4 pd)
11/2 Cups White Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Cup Mayonnaise
3 Cups Flour
11/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt

For the Frosting:
6 Egg Whites
11/4 Cup White Sugar
3 Sticks Room Temperature Butter (24 Tbsp or 1.5 pounds)
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
1/4 Cup Cream

Toss about 3oz. of the andes candies into a bowl along with the cocoa powder and dark chocolate.

Pour the boiling water over the top and allow the chocolate to melt completely.

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and the two sugars.

Mix in the eggs and vanilla.

Add in the mayonnaise.

In a separate bowl combine the flour baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Alternate adding the flour and then the liquid chocolate to the creamed mixture, mixing after each addition.

Pour batter into three prepared 9" cake rounds and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

For the frosting mix together the egg whites and the sugar.

Place into a double boiler and heat until the temperature reaches 160 degrees, whisking often.

Transfer to a mixing bowl and whisk on medium high until stiff, glistening and room temperature; about 5 minutes.

Cube up the butter and add it in a bit at a time while whisking on medium speed.

If your frosting separates, simply up the speed and give it a minute or two to come back together.

Add in the vanilla and almond extract.

Frost the cooled cake.

Reserving about 8 of the remaining mints, place the rest into a double boiler along with the cream.

Once melted, remove from heat and let rest about 5 minutes to cool down. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

Chop the reserved mints and sprinkle over the top of the cake.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

First I was going to make this cake last year. Then a few months ago. Then finally, yesterday night, I made it for my apartmentmate, Marrisa's, 22nd birthday!!

It was easy and fun to make! I thought I'd screw it up with that whole marbling-with-the-knife step (I always do...I can never do it right!) but it turned out not to really be marbling it or swirling it at all. It turned out absolutely. PERFECT. It was soft and delicious and wow, exactly like cinnamon rolls (though yes softer) without all the yeast and the waiting and stuff. EVERYBODY loved it, and it was completely devoured by the end of the night. This cake got a better response than ANYTHING I've ever baked. Kinda surprised me.

So for Marrisa's birthday, I got Lucy to keep her awake til midnight (her birthday is today!) by making her play Settlers with some of the guys. Then I brought all my supplies over to Le's kitchen to bake the cake, and got some of Marrisa's good friends to meet us a little before midnight outside our apartment. It worked perfectly. Marrisa expected us to do something later in the day--not for a whole train of people to barge in right at midnight!!

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Recipe by The Girl who Ate Everything

Found on Lovin From the Oven

Cake:

3 cups flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ cups milk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup (1 stick) real butter, melted

Topping:

1 cup (2 sticks) real butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

3/4 cup chopped pecans, (optional) (always measure the nuts first then chop them)

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

5 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs and vanilla. Next, stir in the 1/2 cup melted butter. Pour batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Next, for the topping, mix the 2 sticks of softened butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and pecans until well combined. Drop evenly over cake batter by spoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from center.

For the glaze, mix powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth and pour over warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

I've been dying to make this recipe for so long...long as in, usually I want to make a recipe for a while and then eventually lose interest, and this was before I lost interest. So just 1 or 2 months. I wanted to make it immediately but kept on forgetting to buy blueberries, and in my Collegetown I guess I can buy 6 ounces of "fresh" blueberries for $4, so no way was I going to do that. Eventually I remembered when visiting Target (they just brought Fresh food to our Target in March!) and got the frozen blueberries, and made these about two weeks ago.

This was sooo good and soo easy! A perfect addition to breakfast. It was delicious warm but also good for a few days after!

For this recipe I used 10 oz frozen blueberries, regular salt, and instead of buttermilk I used skim milk with a little vinegar and it worked fine and tasted just as delicious.

Blueberry Breakfast Cake
Recipe from Dainty Chef

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. lemon zest or more — zest from 1 large lemon
7/8 cup* + 1 tablespoon sugar**
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
½ cup buttermilk
* 7/8 cup = 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
** This 1 tablespoon is for sprinkling on top

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the blueberries.

Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or something similar) with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar.

Bake for 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. If necessary, return pan to oven for a couple of more minutes. (Note: Baking for as long as 10 minutes more might be necessary.) Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Cookies and Creme Oreo Cake

It's my friend Jimmy's birthday today, so yesterday I made him this cake. Overall I think it was really delicious--I wish I'd used better quality butter because in the frosting it looked grainy, but it didn't taste at all grainy. I thought it'd just taste like chocolate cake in the end but it really tasted oreo-like! It was really good! I think I'd like to try making it with four 8-inch layers next time, and maybe make the cake a little more moist (or maybe splitting the layers would do that for me!) but I thought it was really good--the frosting was excellent, I think I'm really liking this flour-frosting recipes!

For this recipe I used two 9-inch cake pans and baked them for 3-5 minutes less. I think less oreos could be crushed, too.

Cookies and Creme Oreo Cake
Recipe adapted by Sunny Side Up in San Diego from Family Circle Magazine

Cake
1 1/4 cups All-purpose Flour
2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (or Hershey's Special Dark)
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Unsalted Butter
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
3 large Eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups Buttermilk

Frosting
Scant 1/2 cup Flour
1 1/2 cups Milk
2 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
25-30 oreos

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans with butter and flour.

Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, or a large bowl using a hand held mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. About 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated and scraping down sides as needed.

With mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, mix until incorporated. Then add 1/2 of the buttermilk, mix until incorporated. Repeat until the last 1/3 of flour has been used. Mix until incorporated and then beat for 1 additional minute.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the sides begin to pull away from the edges. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the racks and allow the cakes to cool completely.

While the cakes are baking, prepare the frosting. In a saucepan, whisk together the flour and milk and cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens (I would compare it to mashed potatoes). It is very important to whisk continuously so clumps don't form. This took me about 4-5 minutes, but it's best to go by texture.

Set milk mixture aside in an ice bath and allow to cool completely.

In a medium bowl, (or bowl of a standing mixture fitted with a whisk) beat together the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute. Add the cooled milk mixture and beat on high for 3-5 minutes. If it looks separated, keep beating.

Cake Assembly
When the cakes are completely cool, cut each cake in half* horizontally. Use 1/3-1/2 cup of frosting to fill between each layer. When all the layers are stacked, set aside 1/2 cup of frosting then use rest to frost the outside.

Using a ziploc bag and a rolling pin, crush all but 6 of the Oreo cookies. Apply the cookie crumbs to the sides of the cake**.

Use the reserved 1/2 cup of frosting to create 6 swirls on the top of the cake, place a cookie in each swirl.

*If you don't have cake leveler tool, you can use a knife to score the cake half way up all the way around. Then place a clean piece of fishing wire or floss in the groove and slice away.

**I set my cake plate over a large piece of parchment paper to catch the extra crumbs. It can get a little messy.

Banana Cake that you HAVE to make!

If you can, please make this, right now. It's a cake that comes together VERY easily. I made this for my birthday party on the 10th. I'd been planning on making this cake for months, actually, but I didn't know that this cake would be as amazing as it was. I'm used to making chocolate cakes for my friends, and so I chose to make myself a banana cake for my birthday, because I don't really like chocolate cake. So I picked this recipe out because it seemed like an easy choice. I wanted to make a small cake in case people didn't like it (my mom ended up buying me a second cake...so people could have Red Velvet (delicious) if they didn't like banana). Everybody loved it.

I made a few changes to the original frosting recipe. I doubled it so that I could remove the cake from the pan (I took it out of the pan about a half-hour after I took it out of the oven, and poured the batter into a pan lined with parchment paper to make that easy--I also used a 9-in square pan), and instead of using vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste or doubling the vanilla at all, I replaced that with the seeds of one vanilla bean, which made it taste absolutely amazing. It was really sweet and complemented the banana cake perfectly--well, at least I think so. Yum! Don't hesitate to make this!

Banana Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting
Recipe from ButterYum
Frosting Recipe adapted by me

Cake:
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 mashed super ripe bananas (about 3/4 cup)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting:
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
Seeds of one vanilla bean
3 cups confectioner's sugar

To make cake (easily mixed by hand):
Preheat the oven to 375F (see note below). Cream together sugar, sour cream, egg, and 2 tablespoons softened butter. Add mashed bananas and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Add flour, salt, and baking soda; mix well. Pour into greased pan. Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting:
Cream butter and confectioner's sugar together until smooth. Slowly add the heavy cream; stir until smooth. Stir in the vanilla bean paste until fully incorporated. Spread on cooled cake.

Note - Bake at 350F if using a glass pan. Recipe doubles well (9x13 pan).

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and Mousse Filling

I can't remember what book this recipe is from, but I made it for my mom's bookgroup get-together. It's a pretty basic yellow cake with pretty basic chocolate buttercream, and then because I wanted to use my new cake pan (which you can buy on Amazon), I made a basic mousse center. It was pretty good!

Moosewood Vegan Chocolate Cake

I still have things I baked over winter break, but I'm leaving those for a bit to make a post about this cake I made for my roommate Lucy on her 22nd birthday late January. We went to Moosewood Cafe a few months ago and loved their cake, so I tried to find the recipe to make it on my own. It was pretty easy--not perfect, and I think it would have gone best in a 9-in square pan instead of the 9-in circular pan the recipe calls for because the glaze kind of spilled over, but it was a good cake. It's best eaten the day-of.

Because the recipe is in the Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts, you can find the recipe reprinted here: Moosewood Cooks.

Coca Cola Cake

This cake was so ugly I was embarrassed that I was bringing it to my friend's birthday party. Don't look. It's ugly. But it was GOOD. It was so so so good. I brought it for a friend (obviously turning 21--I kinda stuck that on with a plastic bag, which is why I didn't go in detail with his name or anything since it was hard enough to get the pink frosting out to write a number) who loves soda, so I figured a Coke cake would be good. It didn't really taste like coke, but it was really really good. People thought it was delicious albeit a little sweet. I might not ever make this cake again (because it turned out so ugly! Maybe cuz I didn't garnish it with nuts?), but it was definitely good!

Coca Cola Cake
Recipe from Southern Living

1 cup Coca-Cola
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
Coca-Cola Frosting
Garnish: 3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Combine Coca-Cola and buttermilk; set aside.

Beat butter at low speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar; beat until blended. Add egg and vanilla; beat at low speed until blended.

Combine flour, cocoa, and soda. Add to butter mixture alternately with cola mixture; begin and end with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended.

Stir in marshmallows. Pour batter into a greased and floured 13- x 9-inch pan. Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes. Pour Coca-Cola Frosting over warm cake; garnish, if desired.

Note: Don't make the frosting ahead--you need to pour it over the cake shortly after baking.

Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

On the 11th was my friend's birthday, so the night before I made this cake for her birthday party. I wanted something easy that I had ingredients for or could easily get ingredients for, and this worked!

I used the same recipe for the cake as I did here except that I only used 2 layers. I still baked it for 30-35 minutes and it worked fine. I also used parchment paper which is a MUST. But everything else for that cake is the same--it's probably my favorite chocolate cake recipe now.

For the cream cheese frosting, I was originally going to make a red velvet cake for her but then the convenience store didn't have red food coloring, but I still stuck with a cream cheese frosting since I had all the ingredients for that. The cream cheese frosting recipe I tried was a new one, posted below. It was really great and I think it complemented the cake nicely...although I didn't eat the cake...so somebody who did get to try it should comment and let me know! It had a stronger cream cheese flavor than my other favorite used with these cupcakes. Ignore the lettering for her name--I didn't have food coloring so I just added some cocoa and was trying to rush so it looks ugly. That doesn't matter, because the taste was all that counted!

Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe from Pinch My Salt

16 oz. cream cheese (2 packages), softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

With an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Turn mixer to low speed and blend in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth).

Old Fashioned Yellow Cake

I put this cake together a while ago, but kept putting off putting it online. It was pretty good--I didn't have enough frosting to cover the whole thing so I quickly whipped up, with whatever ingredients I had, a spur-of-the-moment kahlua buttercream for the center. It would have been better with chocolate ganache or mousse, but I didn't have the ingredients. Overall, the cake was pretty good! The easiest & a really good cake recipe. I definitely want to re-try this one with a different kind of center. The frosting was light and so was the cake, so they went well together, but if I have enough ingredients next time I might opt for a light buttercream. I really have to do something about not having any ingredients for making something quality instead of opting for whatever's easiest...but it was a great change to make a yellow cake instead of everybody's same-old favorite chocolate stuff!

Oh, one more thing, I baked this in 9-inch cake rounds for 20-30 minutes.

Old-Fashioned Yellow Cake
Adapted by Cinnamon Girl Recipes from McCall's Book of Cakes and Pies

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 + 1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

In a large mixing bowl sift flour and sugar, baking powder and salt.

Add butter, milk and vanilla. Beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping sides of bowl.

Add eggs, beat for 2 more minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally among both. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Turn out and cool thoroughly on wire racks. Frost with cream cheese or whip cream frosting. If using whip cream frosting the cake must be refrigerated.

Whipped Cream Frosting

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and chill with the whisk/beaters you will be mixing it with. Cover and chill for 30 minutes, then beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.

Kahlua Buttercream

4-5 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
1-2 tbsp kahlua
1 tbsp milk

Beat butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar, mix until combined. Add rest of ingredients & beat until fluffy.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

I wanted to find a simple recipe that I could use without an electric mixer and without complicated ingredients, and came across this one. Luckily there was buttermilk at our local mini-grocery-store in collegetown. I didn't use hot coffee but the boiling water was perfect anyway.

This cake was for my friend's 21st birthday on friday, and it was a huge hit! I made 3 layers and the frosting was barely enough for me, just a warning. I couldn't find butter anywhere so I used store-bought white frosting...kinda cheated...but oh well it wasn't a big extra. People thought the cake was extremely moist and the frosting was very smooth, and so it was great, and could easily be my newest go-to chocolate cake, minus one huge detail: You DEFINITELY, in my opinion anyway, need to line the bottom of the cake pans with parchment paper. I didn't. They kinda fell apart. I managed to put them back together okay, but the middle layer looked pretty bad before I covered the whole thing with frosting.

Double Chocolate Cake
Recipe from Foodessa
Found on Pinch of Yum
Adapted by me

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup hot coffee (or 1 cup boiling water)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three round baking pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper, greasing the top of that, and set them aside. In a large bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract; beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Stir in hot coffee.

Pour batter evenly between the three pans and bake on middle rack of oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before frosting.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Recipe from Confessions of a Tart
Found on Pinch of Yum

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (more to your tastes)
1/2 cup milk
2-3 cups of powdered sugar (more or less to achieve desired consistency)

Whip the room-temperature butter on medium speed. Shift to low and add cocoa powder slowly, spoonfuls at a time, until fully incorporated. Still on low, add in the powdered sugar (also one spoonful at a time), alternating with the milk, to achieve desired consistency and taste. Then, beat on medium speed until very light and fluffy, another 3-5 minutes. Add in more sugar if consistency is too thin.

Moist Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Last year for my friend Steven's birthday, I made him a Chocolate Panda Cake with White Chocolate Frosting. This year, he wanted a reverse panda--more chocolate. Later, someone remarked that it was just a bear. Whatever, I tried!! It wasn't as cute as it could have been but it was still pretty cute. And good! I actually found a mayonnaise cake recipe for this one and didn't tell anyone and people still liked it...I had leftover mayo that I wanted to use up, haha. Most people loved it, though one person thought the texture was like bread. It was just dense but also moist! And the frosting I chose was the perfect sweetness. I chose the frosting I made for Jimmy's birthday cake last year, found here. I used store-bought icing for the white cuz I was lazy. I sprinkled some mini chocolate chips on the frosting between the layers.

Moist Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Recipe found here

2 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mayonnaise
1 1/3 cups water

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Grease and flour 2 – 9″ round cake pans.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder.

Mix well and set aside.

Beat together eggs, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl for 3 minutes, using the high speed of an electric mixer. Mixture should be smooth and creamy. Reduce speed to low and beat in mayonnaise until blended.

Add flour mixture in batches, alternating with water, in 4 equal additions (1/4 of the flour, then 1/4 of the water etc). Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the center of the cake springs back when lightly touched or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake is clean when removed.

Cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pans and allow to cool completely before frosting with your favorite frosting.