August YFC Birthdays

I baked a cake for my August siblings in YFC. I rather think it was a success, because they all gave me high fives/hugs… and I heard “wow”s or other things close to it. HAHa. I feel good. *grin* I had two bites… allergies, you know? But it was good… mum and I were discussing the frosting, though… She said she’d give the cake a 10 and the icing a 7. We will work on it. But here is the recipe, and you can definitely count on this one to be a hit!!!!

Again, this recipe was taken from Celebrate with Chocolate.

For the cake:

3/4 lb unsalted butter
2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp bowking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

For the icing:

1 1/4 lbs confectioners’ sugar
1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 lbs unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease three 9 1/2 inch baking pans, line them with parchment paper, grease again, and flour. Set aside.

Sift the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together onto a large piece of parchment or wax paper.

Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together.

Add the eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each one before adding the next.

Add half of the dry ingredients followed by half of the milk.

Gradually add the rest of the dry ingredients, and then the rest of the milk. Add the vanilla. This mixture may look a bit odd, not at all batter-like, in fact, it will look kind of like soft-serve ice cream.

Distribute evenly into the three pans, and use a spatula to level.

Bake for 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and leave to cool in their pans for about 15 minutes. Line cake plates/circles with plastic wrap before inverting the cake layers onto them, wrap the layers individually with plastic wrap, and refrigerate while you prepare the icing.

Sift the confectioners’ sugar and cocoa powder onto a piece of parchment or wax paper.

Beat the butter until soft. Add half the dry ingredients and then half of the milk. Mix until fully incorporated before adding the rest of the dry ingredients followed by the rest of the milk. Add the vanilla, and beat until fluffy.

Prepare the first layer for icing. I put foil around the edges of the cake so that the icing doesn’t get on the doily underneath.

Ice between layers, making sure that each is level.

Give the whole cake a crumb coating before the final icing. Use the spatula to give the surface little peaks.

I’m so horribly sorry for the not-so-good pics… I was in a hurry. But the cake was delicious. Trust ME. lol… or rather… trust my friends