Saturday, March 22, 2014

Best Chocolate Cake


Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk plus 1 Tbsp vinegar to make buttermilk
1 cup strong black coffee or 2 tsp coffee granules dissolved in one cup of hot water
1/2 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract

*Icing-I used 2 cans of  a store-bought rich, chocolate icing in order to provide more time for the fun decorating!*

Directions:
1.)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees; lightly spray and flour 2 9in circle cake pans or one 9x13 cake pan.
2.)  In a large bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add in eggs, buttermilk, coffee, greek yogurt and vanilla and beat with mixer on medium speed for two minutes.  Batter will be thin. 
3.)  Pour batter evenly into prepared pan/ pans.
4. ) Bake 30-35 minutes for round pans and 35-40 minutes for rectangular pan or until toothpick in center comes out clean. 
5.)  Let cool completely and frost as desired. 

With Blonde Ambition's Tips for assembling the perfect layer cake:
1.)  Wrap baked cakes in saran wrap and freeze over night.  (I like to place mine back inside the round pans to ensure they will freeze in a uniform shape)
2.)  When ready to assemble, remove cakes from freezer and remove wrap.  First place a spoonful of frosting on center of serving  platter to act as a "glue" to hold base of cake in place.  Next, place first layer on serving platter and slice off rounded top to create a flat base for second layer to sit on. 
3.)  Spread desired amount of frosting on top of first layer and top with second cake layer.
4.) Apply crumb coat (frost entire cake with a very thin layer of frosting to seal in all crumbs and ensure no crumbs will mix in with final frosting layer.)  The cake will still be visible through the crumb coat.  Chill for 30 minutes to allow crumb coat to set.
5.)  Frost with remaining frosting until very well covered; decorate as desired. 


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