The Cakes In The Trash And I Finally Got The Oven Clean
Decorating By Yorkiemum Updated 24 Aug 2007 , 7:32pm by MikeRowesHunny
You talk about a mess! Tried a new recipe and it said to use two 8 inch pans. Okay, I wanted a too the top 8x3 and a 4x3. Major mistake. I started hearing this sizzling noise from the oven. By that time, most of the little one was on the oven floor. Okay, salvage the large one, stuck a piece of foil in to catch the mess, it sunk down in the middle and after an hour and 20 minutes of cooking, I gave up.
Cakes in the trash. Does anyone have a fool proof chocolate I can do tomorrow? Please, please, please. I need to bake it in the morning and I don't want to try that one again. 
I've posted this before and I think a lot of other people use this recipe but I just use Pillsbury devil's food with an extra egg and add a box of chocolate fudge pudding mix. It's very moist and sturdy and freezes well and tastes great. It's also quick and people don't know it's from a box.
For a good chocolate cake in a hurry I use a box of German chocolate cake mix with the ingredients listed on the package. Then I add 1 heaping tablespoon of sour cream and 2 - 3 Tablespoons of strong brewed coffee.
Edited to add: Add small amounts of coffe at the time and taste it since coffees vary. You only want to enhance the chocolate flavor but not make it taste like coffee.
Okay so we've got a vote for BC and a vote for Pilsbury, soooo, I'm gonna throw in Duncan Heinz dark chocolate fudge. It's soooo good right off the back of the box and even a bit better if you sub 1/2 the water with coffee.
I take it you were scratch baking if you were following a recipe? If so, I vote for Toba Garrett's chocolate cake - moist and very delicious, better than any box mix, I can tell you! It's just as easy as a box as you mix everything together at once, then add the melted chocolate, not exactly rocket science!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/109712
If you collar your pans with parchment, it'll help prevent any over-spill problems and give you lovely tall cakes. For the 8x3in pan, I'd use 5c batter, and 1 to 1 1/2c for the 4in (until it's just over 1/2 full.)
Hope that helps and good luck!
I take it you were scratch baking if you were following a recipe? If so, I vote for Toba Garrett's chocolate cake - moist and very delicious, better than any box mix, I can tell you! It's just as easy as a box as you mix everything together at once, then add the melted chocolate, not exactly rocket science!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/109712
If you collar your pans with parchment, it'll help prevent any over-spill problems and give you lovely tall cakes. For the 8x3in pan, I'd use 5c batter, and 1 to 1 1/2c for the 4in (until it's just over 1/2 full.)
Hope that helps and good luck!
I had to laugh! Yes I was using Toba's choc. What I scraped up was delicious! By the time batter rolled out of the pan like molton lava, my intended 3 inch cakes were 1 inch. I ended up using the DH dark choc. with the extra egg and pudding mix. I needed a quick no fail cake for this morning. I'm going to try Toba's again.
This one is dead easy and I've never known it fail. Again, better than any mix.
21
CHOCOLATE CAKE
6 oz + 2 teaspoons S.R. flour 1 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. cocoa powder 1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp. treacle 5 oz. castor sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten 5 fl. oz. milk
5 fl. oz vegetable oil
Pre-heat oven 325°F 170°C Gas mark 3
1. Grease 2 x 8 shallow round tins. Sprinkle with the two teaspoons of flour and tap out excess.
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, bi-carb. and sugar into a large bowl.
3. Pour treacle, eggs, oil and milk onto flour mix and stir for 2 minutes until well blended.
4. Pour the batter into the two tins.
5. Bake in the centre of the oven 40-45 minutes until cakes spring back when pressed and have shrunk from the side of the tins.
6. Allow to stand for 2 minutes before turning out to cool.
7. Sandwich with butter cream.
When I overfill my cake pans they just rise to the edge then dome in the middle. Indydebbie has thread on how much batter she uses to get her cakes to rise just above pan to make easier to level. Wish I had the link, but if you PM her I am sure she would give you the numbers.
Indy uses mixes so I think the amount in the pan would be different for scratch cakes or am I just a junior scratch baker-in-training crazy person?
Not at all! It's a good point! I find I need to fill my pans a touch more than is recommended - scratch cakes tend not to rise as much as box!
Indy uses mixes so I think the amount in the pan would be different for scratch cakes or am I just a junior scratch baker-in-training crazy person?
Not at all! It's a good point! I find I need to fill my pans a touch more than is recommended - scratch cakes tend not to rise as much as box!
It's good to know I'm not crazy-at least on that point!
Now I have a bug to make Toba's choc or yellow cake!
What's treacle?
I think the nearest US equivalent is dark Karo syrup. Hope that helps!
Yorkiemum - Toba's recipe always makes too much for 8in pans (IMO!), so I make it in 9in pans, and yes, there would have been way to much for an 8in & 4in, even for 3in deep pans - did you use all the batter 
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