'Tis the season for baking!

First attempt at making a cake from scratch = Epic Fail?

I know, I know, it has been forever since I have written on this blog, but what better time to start again than the holidays. I have baking A LOT the past few weeks and part of it is because I decided to take a baking class at Charleston Cooks downtown. Totally worth the 60 bucks by the way! What better way to spend a an evening—baking delicious desserts and breads, drinking wine, and then ingesting the goodies you created while the instructors clean everything up for you! It was magical.

One of the recipes we made was a Classic Chocolate cake with Buttercream Frosting. Since we only had a few hours in the class, we didn't get to participate in baking all of the items, so I decided to take on baking the cake from the comfort of my own home. 

Little did I know all of the idiosyncrasies of making a cake. Let’s just say when your husband comes home and eats a piece of your hard work, “Chocolate Slim Jim” are not the words you want to come out of his mouth.

Let me explain. The flavor of the cake was not like a Slim Jim, it was actually quite tasty. But the texture was like a dense brownie that someone smashed to make even more dense. When the cake came out of the oven and I pressed gently on the center, there was no give, no tender push back to say “Hello, I am fluffy”, it was solid…like a Slim Jim.

The sample I gave to Mike was strip of cake from the edges I trimmed off. I hope this helps to explain his comment:

 

Items I learned for next time:

1. Cold ingredients are the enemies when making a cake. Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature.
2. Be sure to beat the butter until fluffy BEFORE adding the sugar. I added them together and THEN tried to beat them to be fluffy.

Cold butter + sugar = butter balls      Nobody wants balls in their cake batter.

3. Do not over mix the batter after the flour is added. Part of this was because there were still lumps from the butter, so I definitely over mixed to compensate. You only need to mix until the flour is barely incorporated.
4. No air in the cake batter means your cake is not going to rise. So the fact I could find hardly any air holes in the cake was not a good sign.
5. I think this would make a good base for an ice cream cake
6. OR this would be really good with a raspberry glaze in the center and maybe cream cheese frosting

Added some chocolate shavings to make it pretty. I figured if the presentation is there, maybe people won't notice how dense it is :)

Turns out the fail was actually a success. I brought the cake to work for my friend’s birthday, and it was devoured by the end of the day. Some people said they liked that it wasn’t fluffy like a normal cake and it was very moist. 

 

If you want the recipe, just comment on this blog and I will scan a copy for you.

I am still determined to make a fluffy cake dammit.