There is quite a difference in the cocoa weight, isn't there Nancylou?

Well, I started baking when I was 9, so I have a few decades behind me.

For an engagement present I received a Culinary Arts Institute Cookbook and I was hooked on baking. Funny how we get interested in something.

You are in your first decade of your baking journey and there is so much available for you to learn and so many things you have access to it must seem mind boggling at times.

I often think back to the days when people managed to bake with only a wooden spoon or homemade whisk to mix with and a wood stove to bake in. They had to grind their own flour. It was a lot more work then and yet they managed. And I thought I had it rough before I got my Kitchen Aid and had only a hand mixer to whip up icing with. 

Hhmn, for some reason my post didn't attach. Yes, Nancylou, it is quite a difference in the cocoa amount and likely caused the problem. Normally it would mean a dry cake.

I have been baking since I was 9 years old, always loved it. Enjoy the long journey you have ahead. There are so many things to learn and so many ways of doing things.

There is this weird thing that keep happening with the site. The first post on a second and subsequent page doesn't show up until someone makes a second post.

Squirrellycakes have you done much experimenting with using buttermilk in the place of milk in recipes? When I make this recipe I always use buttermilk (thanks to Ina Garten) and was just wondering with all your milk experimenting if you tried using it.

I have experimented with using buttermilk but not in this recipe.  Because buttermilk is acidic - you have to insure that the leavening agent is either baking soda on its own or baking soda in addition to baking powder depending on the other ingredients in the recipe. Otherwise there could be issues with rising and also a strange taste. If a recipe has both baking soda and baking powder ( which is baking soda with an acid added to it, more often than not that acid is cream of tartar).  So for example with  this recipe using regular cocoa (which is acidic) and regular milk, you have equal amounts of baking soda and baking powder. And that likely also works well with alkalized (Dutch processed cocoa) or might work even better with an adjustment to lower the soda amount. But if you use the regular cocoa which is acidic and use buttermilk which is also acidic you may be better off reducing or eliminating the baking powder and increasing the baking soda. 

I am curious though.  Usually when buttermilk is in a recipe like a vanilla cake or a red velvet cake - it has a tendency to produce a very delicate crumb. So as this cake already produces quite a delicate crumb, does substituting buttermilk for regular milk not make it even more crumby and delicate and hard to handle? Is this the case or are you also making other changes to the recipe?

Wow, 9 years old, with a real oven no doubt ... I was lucky to make a cake with my Easy-Bake Oven at that point in my life - ah 1976 - those were the days!

I had zero baking experience when I was first bitten by the cake bug - it was the decorating part that pulled me in.  Baking terrified me beyond the box instructions - I didn't even feel comfortable with doctoring a cake.  Then, as I became more confident with decorating, the cake itself became important and I began to slowly venture out.  Then I became obsessed baking every recipe I could get my hands on - and like you said SquirrellyCakes, there is so much information we have access to these days that it is mind boggling.

SykesCakes, I love using buttermilk in cakes, but with the Hershey's recipe I never could because it always had a bitter aftertaste - and after reading SquirrellyCakes explanation, now I know why.

Nancylou, I think it is great that you are getting into the baking end of things now. It always strikes me as funny that most people these days learn how to decorate beautifully before they learn to bake. It is kind of the reverse of how it used to be but then, at one time, only bakers and chefs had access to decorating training. Funny how things change.

Yes, there is so much information available now due to the internet.  And there is a huge amount of equipment available too.

So I swap out the milk for buttermilk, use coffee in place of the hot water, and 1 tsp of baking powder and 2 tsp of baking soda and always get rave reviews. No weird after taste or anything. The cake is a bit delicate but I have made a wedding cake out of it and it worked great.

On another note, I made some lemon cupcakes last night using buttermilk as I didn't have any regular and they rose beautifully and then shrunk to little hockey pucks when I took they out of the oven. I'm wondering if it had anything to do with the fact that I used buttermilk...? The taste is good and the texture is a little dense but these little guys are getting some lemon curd filling and lemon SMBC so I think it will be alright. I am selling them at an event and I'll have a few people (family) tastes test them before hand f they don't pass the test then they won't go up for sale.

 I'm still in the getting the baking down before I dive to far into decorating. I got bite but the bug hard!

sykescakes, the reason your version of the chocolate cake works is because you swapped out some of the baking powder for more baking soda. It may well work in the original amounts of leavening - to some degree too, but may have ended up with a bit of a weird taste because with using buttermilk - acidic and coffee - also acidic, you have really increased the acidic level of ingredients. But I also like that combination for texture and flavour. I can see it becoming quite delicate though.

Yes the buttermilk would affect the "Rise and Fall of the Lemon Cupcakes". That would be a great title for a cake cookbook. Let us know if the weird taste develops but I am guessing if there was lemon in the recipe, was there not already some baking soda in them? 

So the lemon cupcakes ended up selling great at the craft fair I was at! The recipe oddly enough only had baking powder and no baking soda in it, so I think you where right on the money with that one. Maybe I will try it again but change out some of the baking powder with baking soda.  

Glad they did well at the craft fair. Depending on  the recipe and quantity -  usually adding about 1/2 teaspoon baking soda does the trick.

Hi does anyone know why my Hershey perfectly chocolate cake always turns out gummy? I use a measuring cup bought from baking store so I assume it's correct. I follow the recipe exactly except to half it for smaller batch baking. :(

intending to bake this for my birthday party 2 days away, don't think this is possible :(((