I have found my Cake Recipe. It tastes better than a mix, has no scary ingredients (anybody else have nightmares after reading Omnivore's Dilemma?), and goes from cupboard to oven in about 7 minutes. It's an oil cake so there's no Crisco-induced guilt and no softening of butter. It is insanely moist and chocolate-y without being too dense or fudgy. Plus, it left my entire family in a crumby stupor, leaning back in their chairs sporting chocolate-y half-smiles.
This time, I brushed it lightly with a simple syrup and scattered drained pie filling cherries over the sweetened, whipped, cream between and on top for a Black Forest-esqe cake. (Which, if I may say so, made the prettiest cake to ever emerge from my kitchen.)
Next time I might top simply with powdered sugar (although whipped cream is hard to beat as a frosting, although it doesn't keep well in the fridge.)
If you find yourself reaching for a cake mix time after time, because it's easier, save your money and pick up a can of cocoa next time at the store instead (this baby calls for a whopping cup and a half) and impress all your friends and family. (Or you could be like us and impress your neighbors too. They were the happy recipients of our leftovers, in a last-ditch attempt to save my waist line.)
So go! Go! Make a cake, and make someone happy today.
Recipe originally found here
Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Makes 2 eight-inch square or 3 eight-inch round layers.- Unsalted butter, for pans
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pans
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter round or square cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment, and dust with cocoa. (I simply sprayed my pans with this, and it worked great.)
- Into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, stir in eggs, 1 1/2 cups warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla until smooth, about 3 minutes.
- Divide batter among prepared pans. Bake, rotating once, until tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes for 8-inch layers, depending on amount of batter.
- Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely, right side up on rack.
Oh, what a lovely cake! And three layers! So ambitious! :)
ReplyDeleteWhere is the water in the ingredients list?
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