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The Perfect Chocolate Cake
First, the ingredients.
· 2 cups white sugar
· 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
· ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
· 1 ½ teaspoons of baking soda
· 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
· 1 teaspoon of salt
· 2 eggs
· 1 cup of milk
· ½ cup of vegetable oil
· 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
· 1 cup of boiling water
I recommend setting out your ingredients, this
will make adding the ingredients easier and
less of a chance for an error when
measuring. I would suggest you preheat your
oven to 350 degrees F, but if you think your
oven may cook differently, then get an oven
]thermometer and check it out. This recipe
also calls for 2 9-inch round cake pans.
Grease and flour the cake pans.
The first thing I usually do is cream
together the sugar and the oil. Then add in
one egg and cream it together with the
oil/sugar mix. Mix in the second egg and just
cream them together until there are not any
traces of egg left. Then add the vanilla and
just mix a little. (This recipe originally calls for
only 2 teaspoons of vanilla, but I love the
flavor that vanilla gives the cake so I always
add a little bit more.)
Next, sift the baking soda, flour, baking
powder, and cocoa powder together into a
separate bowl and add the salt. Slowly pour
dry ingredients to wet mixture. Then add the
milk. After the ingredients are all added, beat
on a low-medium speed for about 1 more
minute. After this, slowly stir in the boiling
water until combined.
Pour the batter into your two prepared pans.
(Yes, I do just eyeball this because I have
done it so many times.) If you do want to
measure, I would recommend you pour the
batter into a cup measurer and then pour half
of the batter from the measuring cup into the
first cake pan and the rest into the other.
Put your cake into the oven at 350 degrees F
for most ovens for 30 to 35 minutes. I usually
do closer to 30, just so I don't over bake the
cake.
At 30 minutes, I would check on the cake to
see how done it is. My best way to do this is
by inserting a tooth-pick and making sure it
comes out clean.
When cooling your cake, I recommend you
leave it in the pan and put the pan on a wire
cooling rack for about 15-20 minutes. I take a
butter knife and go around the edge of the
cake before taking it out of the pan. Then,
place a plate on the top of the cake and
quickly flip the pan onto the plate and tap
lightly to get the cake out of the pan. Let the
cake cool for a while before trying to frost it (or
just eat it plain, because that is yummy too!)
.
And that cake lovers, is how to make my
perfect chocolate cake. Enjoy!