Chocolate Cake, second attempt May 5, 2008

I still want to make a great chocolate cake and since my friend Christie’s birthday was yesterday, I figured it would be a good time to try again.

Bad plan.

The recipe I chose sounded good, Decadent Chocolate Cake, from the Silver Palate Desserts Cookbook.  I read through the recipe and figured it seemed simple.  Then I realized that I had never actually had to beat egg whites “until stiff but not dry”. 

My only previous attempts at beating eggs whites I used my Kitchenaid and never got them more than foamy.  This time I used my hand mixer, and they definitely beat easily.  It was cool watching the transformation from clear sticky mess to a pure white puffy cloud-like texture.  I then was to gently fold this into my batter.

Just earlier in the day I had learned the proper way to fold in whites, and I was excited I knew how to do this “right”.  But the perfect egg whites seemed to have turned into a meringue consistency and I doubt my folding was gentle enough.

The next problem was the fact that I didn’t own a tube pan.  According to a couple cooking websites, it was fine to substitute a Bundt pan.  I poured the batter into the pan, stuck in the oven and waited.

20 minutes later, the house smelled like burned marshmallows.  I realized my pan wasn’t big enough for the cake and it was spilling over, I put a cookie sheet under the cake to prevent more spillage from causing a fire, but this caused my beautiful cake to collapse.  When the cake was finally done, it wasn’t pretty.  It had the texture of a bad case of acne, of course I was hoping once I flipped it, it would be OK.

Wrong!  Only half of the cake flipped out of the pan.  The other half I couldn’t even chisel out.  It tasted good, and it was moist, but there were these weird little beads throughout the cake, I suspect egg whites that didn’t get mixed in.

I may have added double the baking soda and none of the baking powder, but I can’t be sure.  The cake was such a disaster I didn’t even bother making the icing.  I’ll probably try again, but I’ll be borrowing a tube pan, making sure I get all the proper amounts of ingredients in the cake, and making sure I learn how to properly beat my eggs first.

I have been baking for several years, can turn out a decent loaf of bread, pan of brownies, or cheesecake any day of the week, but for some reason I am terrible with cakes.

Chocolate Cake w/ Fudge Icing May 1, 2008

So, if I am serious about getting into the cake decorating business for a living, I can’t continue to make boxed mixes.  I love the boxed mixes because you just add water, oil, and eggs and the density, taste, and texture come out the same every time.  You don’t even have to think.  I even have a favorite brand and get compliments on the taste of every cake.

But, as my husband reminds me, most people will eat anything.  Set down a week old, dried gas station donut, and someone in the office will snarf it down and declare it tasty.  So, I got out my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook and decided to work my way through the cakes until I found one I liked.

First up was plain old chocolate cake.  It was easy to put together, and smelled great in the oven.  It broke a little when I turned it out of the pan.  It was crumbly but I did manage to ice it OK.  Next up was the taste test, it was pretty bland.  The only way you could tell it was chocolate was because it was brown.  Bummer.

The fudge icing was also from my Betty Crocker book.  It tasted exactly like the microwave fudge on the back of the cocoa container.  Not bad, but not great.  It spread easily, but my borders just slid off the cake.  I may or may not make it again.

My husband took the cake to work this morning, we’ll see what the verdict from the general public is later today.

I would share the recipes, but there has to be tastier recipes out there, so I won’t encourage more people to make these.