Chocolate Blackout Cake

Week 15

This week's host was Courtney she choose Chocolate Blackout Cake. Recipe on page 303 and 304 of our book.

I had a bit of an inner fight with doing this recipe. You see, I love chocolate but have never made a layered cake from scratch before. The only cake I every baked was a chocolate cake for my son's birthday last year. My sister-in-law was here to help me. We attempted to shape it into a basketball. For some reason it wasn't holding together very well. The thought of a layered cake seemed more difficult, but I couldn't pass on making a chocolate desert. You see dark chocolate is my favorite food.

I am so impressed with myself. It looks great, although I haven't seen my fellow baking friends and their cake results yet. Added a few strawberries which are my favorite food as well. It's a win win situation, but I had to wait till the next day to try a piece because we were to full from our dinner. I know it's lame but it tastes better when your really in the mood.

Making the pudding was easy. The only thing I found odd was the recipe said the liquid would thicken in three to four minutes but mine took a lot longer. I guess the time also depends on how thick you want your pudding.

The cake itself was simple to back as well. The recipe called for coffee which I opted out to use. The coffee was replaced with milk. Replacing a liquid in baking is pretty simple. You can just about use any other liquid you want.

Here is a great tip for preparing your cake pan so it won't stick. I forgot to mention above that this was another problem we ran into while baking my son's birthday cake. This probably added to the cake crumbling on us. I will share the steps because I was so thrilled with how easily it came out.

Step 1: Trace cake pan onto parchment paper.

Step 2:  Cut out circle. 
Cut on inside of traced circle to ensure it fits smoothly.

 

Step 3:  Place circle in pan to make sure it fits.

Step 4:  Grease and flour pans. Place parchment circle in pans.

 I will definitely be using this tip again. It saved me from a sticky crumbled cake mess.

Here is another great tip for cutting the cake in half.

Step 1:  Measure height of cake. 
Use your measurements and ruler to score around the edges of the cake.

Step 2:  Cut with knife using the scored edges you created.

Step 3: It's a perfect cut cake!

 This tip is the reason I will make layered cakes again. It was simple and made for a smooth surface to spread your filling.

I love the smooth and rough textures together in this cake. It turned out great in looks and taste. The cake is very rich but really good. I think some vanilla ice cream might go good with my next piece later tonight. This cake would make a great birthday party cake for a chocolate lover.

A Tip & A Question:

1. See above for tips.
2. My cake had, what looked liked, bleach spots. I swear I mixed the batter really well. Anyone know what happened? It didn't effect the taste.