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Lita829
Forum Addict
Joined: Mar 17, 2009
Posts: 549
Location: Pennsylvania
Birthday: Aug 29
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:31 pm |
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Sara91...If you want, there is a conversion chart under the "Recipe" tab to convert to and from the Metric System. Here it is:
http://cakecentral.com/cake_re.....erter.html
This is just in case people don't have time to convert the recipes.
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Lita829
Forum Addict
Joined: Mar 17, 2009
Posts: 549
Location: Pennsylvania
Birthday: Aug 29
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:43 pm |
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Thanks for the compliment and starting the new post, Artscallion!! All the recipes sound DELISH!! I'll hold off on making my selections until July 4th. Its going to be hard to choose...they all sound so good! |
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ceshell
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Feb 05, 2006
Posts: 2739
Location: Sunny Southern California
Birthday: May 01
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:21 pm |
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OK you all KNOW my favorite to submit is the Scott Clark Woolley Fudge Brownie Cake. I've tried it compared to the Epicurious Double Chocolate Layer cake and for me there is just no substitute. I am hoping y'all will choose to bake the "egullet" version of this cake because that's the version I have had longtime success with, so that is the specific recipe I am submitting. It's right here, top of page 3 of this thread. http://cakecentral.com/cake-de.....87-30.html
Do consider using coffee instead of water; I used to use water because I fear the taste of coffee (can't stand the stuff), but you absolutely, 100% cannot taste the coffee, I guarantee it. Decaf is fine; in fact I just use instant coffee (made into coffee of course).
I would also like to submit the Guinness Stout recipe only I have to go find it! I have not made it yet but I have seen so many positive reviews of it here on CC I would be interested to see how it measures up in my book.
Looking forward to more recipes. I'll post my formal choices once we have the full roundup but I won't be making the SCW since I know that cake backwards and forwards . |
Last edited by ceshell on Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:00 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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bobwonderbuns
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Nov 17, 2006
Posts: 5555
Location: one block from the edge of the earth...
Birthday: Nov 01
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:26 pm |
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Ceshell, is Scott's cake in his book? |
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Pebbles1727
Frequent Member
Joined: Jul 28, 2008
Posts: 231
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:45 pm |
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Cannot wait to try some chocolate cakes. I currently use Ina Garten's version of Hershey's cake (with buttermilk and coffee). It is a wonderful cake but I'm looking for a chocolate cake with a little different texture. Does anyone know if any of the proposed cakes are lighter in color and have velvety (almost poundcakie) texture instead of fluffy? |
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ceshell
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Feb 05, 2006
Posts: 2739
Location: Sunny Southern California
Birthday: May 01
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:05 pm |
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bobwonderbuns, when I found the recipe on egullet, it said it was "from Scott Clark Woolley's 'Cakes by Design' ". The egulleters tweaked the jeepers out of that recipe and came up with the version I posted on the top of p3 of the thread I linked to.
Pebbles, I'll answer your question at least for the cake I know: I would consider the SCW a more dense, velvety cake (as opposed to "fluffy")...but it is NOT a "lighter in color" cake, it's quite dark. (I don't eat poundcake though so I don't know if "velvety" means "poundcakie"?) |
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majormichel
Frequent Member
Joined: Apr 22, 2005
Posts: 456
Location: Nova Scotia but from the Bahamas
Birthday: Apr 23
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:14 pm |
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| sara91 wrote: | majormichel, is there a metric measurement for the flour? I am looking forward to trying this recipe. Thanks!!
If anyone else could include metric when posting recipes that would be most helpful. (only if metric measurement is included in the recipe from the author) |
check this website for converting to metric.
http://www.joyofbaking.com/USM.....Equiv.html |
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artscallion
Frequent Member
Joined: Mar 05, 2009
Posts: 442
Location: Providence, RI
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:58 pm |
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ceshell, when I compare the egullet version to the book version, the only difference I see is that they cream the butter and sugar in a separate process, as opposed to the book's dump and mix method. Am I missing something else? |
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ceshell
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Feb 05, 2006
Posts: 2739
Location: Sunny Southern California
Birthday: May 01
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:16 pm |
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Really? OK that is pretty funny! I thought they did other things but it's been a long time since I read the original thread on egullet. The first 25 pages of "best chocolate cake recipe" were devoted to tweaking this...I thought they varied the oil, maybe the cocoa...but I can't really be sure  . That is pretty funny if the only difference is the creaming??!
Here's a link to the thread, in case you want to follow their train of thought http://forums.egullet.org/inde.....opic=41144 |
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ahuvas
Frequent Member
Joined: Jul 23, 2006
Posts: 406
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:38 pm |
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Okay I am putting forward my grandmother's chocolate cake. I have found it to be light yet sturdy.
Here it is:
Lily's Chocolate Cake
250 grams (9 ounces) margarine/butter
3 cups sugar
2 cups water
5 Tbs cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
3 cups self-raising flour
Bring to boil first 5 ingredients and put on a low simmer for for a minute or two. Keep a careful eye on the pot as it can very quickly rise and pour over the sides!
Let cool
Beat eggs and add to the cooled mixture. Whisk in self-raising flour. Make sure to use a whisk otherwise you will get lumps of flour. If you get lumps you can always use a stick blender to make a smooth consistency - it doesnt harm it.
Bake 350 degrees celcius for 45 minutes – 1 hour or until done in the center. |
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Pebbles1727
Frequent Member
Joined: Jul 28, 2008
Posts: 231
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:49 pm |
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Thanks ceshell,
I guess that's the one I'll be trying first.
P |
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giraffe11
Frequent Member
Joined: Sep 09, 2007
Posts: 363
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:33 pm |
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Akacupcakeshoppe........I just looked up the Ina Garten cake that you thought was similar to the Hershey's cake (Beatty's Chocolate Cake) and you are right, of course.
Except it's not similar, it's an exact duplicate of the HErshey's cake as well, including the slightly larger amt of oil. So funny. I am still curious to try the Wanda variation with the slightly reduced oil though. Everyone loves my cake so much.....I'm afraid to mess with it. But if I can reduce the oil by a bit w/o sacrificing anything, that's a good thing.
The other chocolate cake I am dying to try is a chocolate mousse cake, but it is labor intensive.....you have to make the chocolate mousse separately and then fold it in.......so, I don't think I'll suggest it for the bakeoff. |
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artscallion
Frequent Member
Joined: Mar 05, 2009
Posts: 442
Location: Providence, RI
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:38 pm |
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| ceshell wrote: | Really? OK that is pretty funny! I thought they did other things but it's been a long time since I read the original thread on egullet. The first 25 pages of "best chocolate cake recipe" were devoted to tweaking this...I thought they varied the oil, maybe the cocoa...but I can't really be sure . That is pretty funny if the only difference is the creaming??!
Here's a link to the thread, in case you want to follow their train of thought http://forums.egullet.org/inde.....opic=41144 |
Thanks for that link, ceshell. Very interesting discussion. Yes there was a whole lot of kerfuffle about oil and cocoa and the typical egullet admonitions to use 'good' butter and 'good' cocoa. It's funny but after all that chatter they ended right back where they started. 
One interesting thing I noticed about their discussion. The original poster posted the recipe using cups for ingredient measures. Then someone 'converted' this to weights using their own preferred conversions. But if you read Woolley's book, where he lists both volume and weight, his conversions are very different. Apparently, no one noticed this.
For instance the book and originally posted recipe call for 3 cups of flour. A helpful poster converted this to 15 oz (my typical weight conversion for flour is also 5oz per cup) However, Woolley lists 13oz total, or 4.33 oz per cup. So they were all starting out using almost 1/2 cup extra flour.
They all ended up having trouble with doming and cracking, something that extra flour can cause. So they started switching to cake flour and switching from baking soda to powder and all kinds of things.
This is not dissimilar from the issue we've been having with the SW Yellow cake. If an author lists a certain number of cups of flour, or powdered sugar or cocoa, you have no way of knowing how that author measured that out. Did they weigh? Scoop? If they weighed, what conversion did they use?
I've seen different charts say a cup of flour weighs anywhere from 4.25 cups to 5.5 cups. in a recipe with four cups of flour, that's a potential difference of a whole cup! There really should be an industry standard for this? Why isn't there? It's such an important thing...I mean baking...flour...c'mon! Or all cookbooks should be required to list weight in addition.
~rant over~
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ceshell
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Feb 05, 2006
Posts: 2739
Location: Sunny Southern California
Birthday: May 01
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:13 pm |
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ITA artscallion!! It's too true: we are constantly reminded to "measure accurately," ...but we have no idea how the recipes' authors measured if they only provide measurements by the cup! You'd think that any recipe is using true measurements (i.e. by weight) and that the whole point of proper scooping is to approximate the proper weight when doing a physical measurement. But now we are seeing that even using the so-called "proper weight" might be an error, if the author himself didn't weigh!
Oh, I'm getting a headache.  LOL
p.s. I measure, and I just looked at a conversion chart: I use 120g/c flour, and based on SCW's measurement I am accurate by within 1/10 of an ounce per cup. Whew. FWIW I too sometimes get doming and cracking - it's not *bad* and doesn't always happen, but it did happen last weekend. Made for some delicious scraps  . Also I DO use good butter and Callebaut cocoa. Your revelation about the recipe not really being adapted after all, is totally blowing my mind! |
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sara91
Regular Member
Joined: Apr 21, 2009
Posts: 174
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Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:20 am |
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I agree artscallion totally. I have read some bakers forums and they talk about this.
Apparantly many authors like to work in weights (which is the most accurate) and then the publishers demand they convert it to the volume measurement as they believe that this is what the public wants. GGGGGGGRRRRRR
I have read that many use the site GourmetSleuth.com as all the ingredients have been weighed individually.
I made Sylvia W Yellow Cake and used this conversion calculator and the cakes came out below average.
Dissapointed. Hopefully one day books will include both weight measurements and volume. |
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