Beatty's Chocolate Cake

So you got the tools and the basic ingredients - it's time to bake your first cake! Everybody loves Chocolate Cake so I decided that it'll be my first ever cake from scratch. I wanted to try my hand in baking first before I start learning how to decorate. A beautiful cake is a waste if it doesn't taste great. After all, you want to have your cake and eat it too, right?

To make the story of my long search short, I found this recipe on the Food Network website. It's from Ina Garten - the Barefoot Contessa. It had a 5-star rating with over 700 positive reviews. I'm so glad that it had a video because honestly reading recipe instructions overwhelm and intimidate me. Even the word "sift" is so scary to me! It is so much easier learning a new skill when you watch it get done rather than just reading about it.

So, here's the video and then the recipe follows. I'm going to include another video after the recipe that shows you how to prepare the pans using the baking spray with wax paper and use the cake leveler to level the cake before frosting.





Beatty's Chocolate Cake Print Recipe

2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home, All Rights Reserved.


INGREDIENTS

• Butter, for greasing the pans
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

DIRECTIONS

Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Chocolate Frosting:

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Callebaut)

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

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Note: You can use your hand mixer with the beater attachments if you don't have an electric mixer. I also use just 1 teaspoon of instant coffee powder for the Chocolate Frosting instead of 1 tablespoon. Below is the video showing how to prepare the pans using your PAM Baking Spray and Wax Paper (0:12). It also shows another great recipe for Chocolate Cake but you can skip to the part where she levels the cake using the Cake Leveler (4:50).

Enjoy your cake!