I want to make my boyfriend a chocolate birthday cake from scratch next weekend. With chocolate frosting too, also from scratch. Simpler is better, so I don’t screw it up, but I have managed to make cakes from scratch before. I don’t want anything too heavy or overly chocolately, just yummy. Please advise. Thanks.
How about chocolate mayonnaise cake
Easy to do, rich. We make ours with Miracle Whip, which adds a spicyness. Its been my Dad’s favorite cake for years.
Triple-Chocolate Layer Cake
For cake:
1/2 C. cold buttermilk
1 T. instant espresso powder
2 t. vanilla extract
1 1/4 C. sugar
1 C. cake flour
6 T. unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
3 large eggs
1/2 C. unsalted butter, room temperature
For fillings and frosting:
4 oz. good-quality white chocolate (such as Baker’s of Lindt), finely chopped
4 oz. imported milk chocolate, finely chopped
1 C. plus 1 T. chilled whipping cream
6 oz. bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
White and milk chocolate shavings (optional)
To make cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8 inch diameter cake pans with 1 1/2 inch high sides. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Stir buttermilk, espresso powder and vanilla in small bowl until powder dissolves.
Sift sugar and next 5 ingredients into large bowl. Add eggs and butter; beat until mixture is thick and smooth, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add buttermilk mixture; beat until light and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes longer. Divide batter among pans.
Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 5 minutes. Turn cake out onto racks. Peel off parchment; cool completely.
To make fillings and frosting: Place white chocolate and milk chocolate in separate medium bowls. Bring 1 cup cream to boil in heavy medium saucepan. Pour 3 tablespoons hot cream into white chocolate and 3 tablespoons hot cream into milk chocolate. Add bittersweet chocolate to remaining cream in saucepan; stir until smooth. Stir white chocolate and milk chocolate fillings until smooth; chill until cold but not firm, about 15 minutes. Set aside bittersweet chocolate frosting.
Place 1 cake layer on platter. Using hand-held mixer, beat white chocolate filling until slightly stiff. Spread over cake layer. Top with second cake layer. Add remaining 1 tablespoon cream to milk chocolate filling and beat until smooth. Spread over second cake layer. Top with third cake layer. Chill cake until bittersweet chocolate frosting is firm enough to spread, about 30 minutes.
Stir frosting until smooth. Spread very thin layer over top and sides of cake to smooth surface and anchor chocolate shavings. Chill 30 minutes. Spread remaining frosting decoratively over cake. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome and chill.)
Garnish cake with chocolate shavings, if desired, and serve.
Serves 10.
Yummmm…
This one may sound counterintuitive (beer in cake?) but always gets rave reviews. Follow the advice of several of the reviewers and halve the recipe, or you will end up with 4 layers, or 2 whole bundt cakes. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, depending on how much you love your arteries…
You said easy, and this one is definitely easy. It won a Pillsbury Bakeoff many years ago, and I’ve made it lots of times. The frosting’s the best part.
* 1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix
* 1 can cherry pie filling
* 2 eggs
Mix cake mix, cherry pie filling, and eggs by hand. Pour batter into greased and floured 13x9x2-inch pan and bake at 350° about 30 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Frosting:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup milk
- 6 oz package of semisweet chocolate chips
Place sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and stir in chocolate chips until smooth. Pour over warm cake.
Do you pour this on a per-serving basis, or do you pour the whole pan onto the whole cake as frosting, and then it solidifies?
I like the idea of a mayonnaise cake. We looooooove mayonnaise and have often praised its virtues.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Cavity-Maker-Cake/Detail.aspx
That’s the recipe I use, only I use raspberry liqueur instead of the coffee liqueur and garnish with raspberries. It’s very easy and very delicious.
The only one I make from scratch is Crazy Cake, which requires no dairy ingredients. It comes out rich and darkly yummy.
Badkittypriestess, that’s one of my favorites! I got it a few years ago from Epicurious.com, a great recipe site.
Rubystreak, check epicurious, allrecipes.com, and America’s Test Kitchen. Epicurious and Allrecipes let people review and comment on recipes, which I find very valuable – lets you see if a recipe that looks good and easy is actually difficult and yucky.
I have a great doctored-cake-mix recipe, but it’s at home and I’m at work. I’ll try to remember to post it tonight!
OK, in case anyone opened this thread and IS looking for something too rich and overly chocolatey, but yummy, I recommend the Bete Noir from Epicurious. It is easy to make and dazzling in its rich chocolatieness.
I use this recipe from Anna Olson. It’s magically delicious and quite sophisticated in flavouring.
Ok this cake isn’t your run of the mill kind but I have to Post it any way!
It’s a layer cake with graham crackers.
Eclair Cake
1 Pound graham crackers
1 Large Pkg. chocolate Instant pudding
1-8 ounce carton cool whip
Mix pudding & milk. Refrigerate for 5 min.
Put 1 layer graham crackers in 9x13 pan sprayed w/Pam. Mix cool whip & pudding. Pour 1/2 of mixture over graham crackers.
Add layer of graham crackers.Pour rest of pudding over & add last layer of crackers.
Frosting: 2 oz. melted unsweetened chocolate
2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla
Stir in a little milk until mixture is a spreadable frosting.
Cover cake with frosting & refrigerate for at least 2 hrs.!
Soooo Yummy!!! 
I think that’s the one my friend refers to as ice box cake. It is yummy.
Use orange juice instead of water. So simple and so delicious.