So in honor of Chocolate Cake Day, I've put together some recipes and tips for you. The recipes below include chocolate cakes from scratch as well as those using cake mix. Enjoy!
Try some of these chocolatey recipes:
Chocolate Cakes From Scratch
Chocolate Potato Cake Recipe
Chocolate Microwave Cake
Mayonnaise Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Cakes Using Cake Mix
Cherry Crown Chocolate Cake
Crock Pot Peanut Butter Cake
Swiss Cakes (uses yellow cake mix)
Tips for Great Cakes
by Amanda Formaro
Whether you make cake from scratch or using a box cake mix, nothing spoils your fun like a dry cake that requires something to drink just to get it down your throat. There are a few things you can do to be sure that your cakes always turn out great.
Room Temperature Ingredients
When a recipe calls for butter or eggs to be at room temperature, a common misconception is to leave the ingredients out long enough that you no longer feel a chill on them when touched, usually a couple of hours. This is incorrect. Room temperature ingredients are things that have been allowed to sit at room temperature for about 20-25 minutes. If butter is too warm, air molecules will escape and it will no longer be able to build structure, causing your cake to be flat due to the fat liquifying. For butter, your best bet is to remove the butter from the refrigerator, slice it into thin pieces and let sit at room temperature for no longer than 5 minutes.
The Right Flour
Most cake recipes call for all purpose flour. Unbleached and bleached all purpose flours are fine to use interchangeably, however do not substitute other types of flour such as wheat or bread flour. Cake flour is made from a softer wheat than all purpose flour and therefore has a lower gluten content and more starch. To substitute cake flour in a recipe that calls for all purpose, use the following equation:
1 cup cake flour = 1 cup all purpose flour MINUS 2 tablespoons
1 cup all purpose flour = 1 cup cake flour PLUS 1 tablespoon
Want to read the rest of this article?
Visit Tips for Baking Great Cakes on Annie's Recipes to read the rest!
See you next week!
~ Amanda
Great tips! I especially love the butter tip. I hadn't heard that one before. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI do my butter like that all the time :) If butter is below 68 degrees, the fats liquify and cause flat cakes. Thanks for stopping by Barb! :)
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