(no subject)

[which_chick]

I want a yellow cake with chocolate icing. I don't want like Duncan Hines. I want the platonic ideal, the best possible yellow cake with chocolate icing. This is the kind of thing I take seriously, after all.

Anybody have a go-to recipe, or am I gonna have to give Smitten Kitchen's effort a whirl?

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (480 grams) cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt
2 sticks (1 cup, 1/2 pound or 225 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (400 grams) sugar
2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk (475 ml), well-shaken

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up.)

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.

Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. (I like to drop mine a few times from two inches up, making a great big noisy fuss.) Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

(I'm just posting this here for laters, actually. I lifted it entirely via copy-n-paste from smittenkitchen.com, link to original is here and sie is a more entertaining food writer than I am anyway.)

I don't think I will like the frosting that smittenkitchen suggests, though, so I need a different frosting. I'm thinking Martha Stewart's.

24 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
Pinch of salt
Yellow Butter Cake
Colored sprinkles (optional)
Directions

Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water. Turn off heat; stir occasionally until chocolate has melted completely, about 15 minutes. Set bowl on countertop, and let chocolate cool to room temperature, 25 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, combine cocoa powder and boiling water in a small bowl; stir until cocoa is dissolved.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add melted chocolate; beat on low speed until combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in cocoa mixture.

Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make level; brush off crumbs. Place four strips of parchment paper around perimeter of a serving plate or lazy Susan. Place the first layer on the cake plate, and spread top with 3/4 cup of frosting. Place the second layer on top, bottom side up, and spread top with 3/4 cup of frosting; repeat process with the third layer. Place the remaining layer on top of the third layer, bottom-side up; insert a dowel into the center of cakes if necessary. Spread entire cake with remaining frosting. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.


There will be no sprinkles on my cake. They have a weird texture and they look tacky. Nothing I have ever eaten that came with sprinkles on it was actually worth eating -- all of it was insipidly sweet and had the sticky mouthfeel of cheap, overprocessed oils. Not a sprinkles fan over here. Just... no.

I'll keep ya'll posted on how it turns out.

Comments

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

Also, that makes way too much frosting. Two sticks of butter of frosting should be plenty.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

These recipes assume that my 'room temperature' is something other than 60 degrees F, don't they? (I have built a fire.)

[moeckie.livejournal.com]

While I haven't made the yellow cake (I prefer white with chocolate frosting) every cake I've made from America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated has been amazing. I did the white as well as their German chocolate, as that's what the DH wanted for his birthday last year. This year for mine I'm considering orange cake because I love it so.

I have The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook and it is awesome.