The Perfect Birthday Cake

Last week marked the first birthday of A Thyme To Eat. Suzie and I have enjoyed sharing our kitchens and culinary adventures with you all and look forward to another great year. I was recently asked to bake a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for a friend's birthday party and thought that this would be the perfect post for the occasion.

This was actually my first time baking this type of cake so I ended up doing quite a bit of research before settling on a recipe. Several blogs that I respect listed Martha Stewarts recipe as being the best, and I have to say that I agree. This cake managed to be light and rich all at once. And the frosting absolutely made this cake. If you only have time to make one thing from scratch, make this frosting! It is so worth it and will literally melt in your mouth.

Printer Friendly Version

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients
For the cake
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups whole milk

For the frosting
1 lb semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 tablespoons Ghiradelli cocoa powder
6 tablespoons boiling water
3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of two round cake pans with parchment paper and grease the pans with either butter and dusted with flour or the Crisco baking spray.

 In the bowl of your electric mixer with the paddle attachment, add the 2 sticks of butter and sugar. Cream on medium speed until fluffy.

 While the butter and sugar is creaming, combine the flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

 Once the butter and sugar is ready, add the eggs one at a time, blending on medium speed fully until adding the next egg.

 Add in the vanilla and blend in.

 With the mixer on low speed, add in a third of the flour followed by a third of the milk and blend in fully. Repeat two more times until all the milk and flour is blended in.

 Pour the batter evenly between the two cake pans. Place in the oven and bake, rotating halfway through until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes.

 When ready, remove the pans from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes.

 After 20 minutes, remove from the pan and return to the wire rack until the cakes are completely cooled to room temperature.

Meanwhile, chop the chocolate and place into a heat resistant bowl.

 Place a top of a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is fully melted and smooth.

 When smooth, remove the chocolate from the heat and let cool for about 25 minutes until it reaches room temperature.

 While the chocolate is cooling, combine the boiling water and baking powder in a small bowl and stir until fully blended.

 When the chocolate is ready, cream the 3 sticks of butter and confectioner's sugar in the bowl of your electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.

 Pour in the melted chocolate and beat on low speed until completely blended.

 Pour in the water and cocoa powder mixture and beat until mixed in. If you want your frosting at a thicker consistency, let sit in the fridge for an hour or so. I thought it was just right and put it right on the cake.

 Scoop about a cup of frosting onto the bottom cake, you may want to level the top off to remove the rounded top.

 Smooth out the frosting then place the second layer on top.

Add another cup of frosting on top of that layer and smooth it out and add more onto the sides until fully frosted.

The birthday boy, making a wish.

 Enjoy with coffee or milk.

Source: The Martha Stewart Baking Handbook

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting: The Perfect Birthday Cake!

It was my fellow blog writer's birthday the other day! Staci decided to make her own birthday dinner and treat a few of her friends to her delicious cooking! What a treat! So, I decided that the least I could do was make the birthday cake. My only guideline from her husband was "chocolate." So, indeed, I went to town on the chocolate and made this rich and decadent Chocolate layer cake with Chocolate Buttercream frosting.

The cake was rather easy to make. Once I had all of my ingredients set up and ready to go all I had to really do was mix them together in the bowl, pour into dishes, and bake! The frosting was equally easy. I enhanced the cake a little bit by using my Dessert Decorator (a gift from my parents...very useful and helpful!).

Before decoration...

After!

The number of candles you put on a cake can be a touchy subject for birthday girls. I was chatting about this with Bunker's grandmother the other day, and she had a simple and thoughtful solution. Rather than marking each year with a candle, she suggested that you use only three candles on a cake: one for yesterday, one for today, and one for tomorrow. I love this and I will always use this candle tactic in the future.

Happy Birthday Staci!

I found the cake recipe at My Baking Addiction, and the Buttercream Frosting at Savory Sweet Life, and I made only a few variations.

Printer Friendly Version


Cake Ingredients:
2 cups of sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup strong black coffee (I used Texas Pecan from Central Market)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients: If you are going to decorate the cake...you should double this recipe.
1 cups unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened (NOT melted)
3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons heavy cream

Cake Steps:
1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees and gather your ingredients.

2. Prepare two 9-inch round baking pans. I cut out circular pieces of wax paper to fit in the bottom of the pans to ensure not mess-ups!

3. Attach your whisk to your standing mixer. In the large bowl of the standing mixer, combine the 2 cups of sugar, 1 3/4 cups of flour, 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cocoa, 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

4. To this dry mixture, add the 2 eggs, 1 cup of buttermilk, 1 cup of coffee, 1/2 cup of oil and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

5. Beat on medium speed for about two minutes.

6. Pour the batter evenly between the two prepared baking dishes.

7. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. To ensure that the cake is fully cooked, you can insert a wooden toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, that means the cake is done!
8. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes before you remove them from the pans.

9. Once removed from the pans, let them cool completely before you assemble and frost the cake.

Frosting Steps:
1 Gather your ingredients.

2. With the paddle attachment on your standing mixer, cream the 2 sticks of butter for a few minutes, until the butter is nice and creamy.

3. Combine the 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and the 1/2 cup of cocoa powder together in a separate bowl.

4. Slowly add the sugar and cocoa to the butter. Mix until the sugar and cocoa are fully absorbed into the butter.

5. Add the 2 teaspoons of vanilla, the 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and the 4 tablespoons of cream to the sugar and butter mixture. Beat for about 3 minutes.

6. If you are unhappy with the consistency of the icing try this: If the frosting is to runny, add more sugar. If the frosting is too stiff, add milk.
7. Frost the cake!