Helloeveryone I am making a two tier cake and wondering, what is the best chocolate cake and filling for something like this, a stupid question i know, but i am only new to this also it will be for a two year old.
thankyou

Not sure about the best cake but the absolute best choc frosting is Toba's Godiva buttercream. It is a little expensive with the ganache, Godiva liquer, dutch cocoa, but is is soooooooooooooooooo worth it.

One Delicious Chocolate Cake (Kate Sullivan)

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs, room temp
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 ½ cups buttermilk, room temp
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 ½ cups strong coffee

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour sides and bottoms of pans. Set pans aside.

In large bowl of mixer, stir together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and soda. Stir in the sugar.

In small bowl, combine the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix into the dry ingredients. Stir in the buttermilk, melted butter and coffee. Divide batter evenly among pans.

Bake at 350 for around 35 min. or until toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to wire cooling rack.

if you live at a low elevation use 1 tsp each baking powder and soda instead of 1 tb each (note by melysa)


whipped milk chocolate ganache

12 oz milk chocolate chips
2 cups heavy cream


Heat cream until nearly boiling. Pour over chocolate chips in a metal bowl. let sit 2 minutes. Whisk chocolate and cream until well combined; dark, smooth and glossy.

Let sit at room temp until cooled.chill for 4-6 hours or overnight. To thicken, whip with mixer for a few minutes. use as a filling and or frosting. (tastes like mousse). makes about 4 cups.

Refrigerate in airtight container for up to a week. To restore to spreading or glazing consistency, heat and stir over double boiler for a few minutes until softened.

the cake recipe i just posted is wonderful. it is so flavorul, moist and light. i love, love , love it...this is my most frequent requested cake combination. enjoy.

the one on the back of the hershey's cocoa can is awesome and EASY, and I second Toba Garret's recipe. You can find it on epicurious.com

I think the best filling for a chocolate cake would be White chocolate Butter Cream (Yuummmm)

I have the recipe at home- I'll post it as soon as I get outta work

What dimension pans and how many will this recipe make?

Diane

I use Duncan hines devils food and extender recipe with a very vesatile filling that i use in most of my cakes.

1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar

beat till thick, fold in one (4 serving) pudding mix of any flavor pudding. Verrrrry good with chocolate and white chocolate puddings. Refrigerate till set.

SOOOOO good it is a favorite of mine and everyone who eats it!!!!

Thanks heaps for your replys, melysa your cake sounds beautiful I think that i will give it a go

We have a Chili cookoff at church Sunday and the kids get to have a cake contest. Two of my four wanted chocolate cakes so we made this recipe (actually my 13 year old daughter made it last night). The recipe was about 9 cups and made five 6" cakes (three round and two hexagon because nobody wanted the same shape cake! )

I have to admit we were a little worried about the consistency of the batter as it was super runny. We forged ahead and baked them and they set up nicely. The color of the cake is beautiful! Super dark and fudgy looking. Like you said, as they cooled the crumb tightened up and they got quite firm. We haven't tasted them yet but that 5th round one is destined to be eaten today. (The little crumbs I've been picking at taste fabulous though! )

My kids are just like their mother and have quite the combinations planned for them. Here are the future cc'ers plans:

Oldest: this chocolate cake (round) with ganache filling and white chocolate IMBC frosting

Next oldest: yellow cake (book pan; she's doing a bible cake) with milk chocolate filling and white choc. IMBC frosting

3rd: this choc. cake (hexagon) with caramel filling and milk chocolate frosting

4th: yellow cake (heart), lemon moistening syrup, blackberry jam filling (homemade) and vanilla buttercream frosting.

They haven't even begun to decorate them yet!

Look out Cake Central.............here they come! Sounds like you're raising a bakery crew for sure. Wish them luck in their cake contest on Sunday. Sounds like after church dinner is going to be wonderful!

Diane

This cake sounds wonderful. Does the coffee give it a coffee flavor? (I know a pretty silly question) I'm looking for a chocolate cake recipe for my nephews grooms cake. He wants a peanut butter filling. I don't know if it has a coffee flavor if the peanut butter filling would work.

amandasmummy, you are welcome. hope you enjoy it!

fran, wow, you're kids sounds persistant and excited! i look forward to hearing the results of the cake contest.

jennycakes, it really depends on the strength you put in. according to the recipe, no...it just gives it a good extra "something" that people notice but cant quite put their finger on it. but it doesnt taste like youre drinking a cup of joe.... now i imagine if you did a seriously intense syrupy thick espresso, perhaps the flavor would be more pronounced. but with peanut butter, you are just fine. it'll be delicious! you can give it a shot and if you still think the flavor is there and you dont want it to be, make the coffee regular strength instead of "strong" as the recipe calls for (i typically double the strength) or even just do water. but i really think it gives a good flavor without taking away from the purpose of the chocolate at all.

lol photomommie! It does sound so good, I'm waiting too. I must say this all sounds delicious. I haven't fooled much with fillings but after reading what the kids are doing... I want to too.

franluvsfrosting, are you will to share any of your scrumptious sounding fillings? They sound mouth watering.

Can you tell I'm hungry Always hungry for cake!

Please post pictures of your little chef's cakes. Thell'll be the hit of the cook off for sure.

Kat

yes i do, but i use satin ice fondant . if i used mmf i suppose i woudnt refrigerate it if it was to be eaten within a day or so. the recipes i have in several books (all but one) say its ok to leave the icing out at cool room temp for up to 2 days. if its warm, keep it refrigerated. the best temp is not above 70F. anyway- i refrigerate it not so much because i am worried (i usually do a cake as close to when it will be served, so it usually will not be out more than 12 or so hours, but the main reason i do is just to keep it firmed up for transportation and stuff. by the time its ready to be eaten, it has had time to warm back up to room temp.

what kind of fondant do you use? and what is your fmbc recipe? refrigerating or not may also depend on the measurements and ratio of ingredients.

alana, another thing you can do is use the carton of egg whites instead of fresh eggs because they are pasturized , and that may give you a little extra peace of mind. on the carton it will say, not recommended for meringue but, i've done it without problem.

Okay, I tried the cake. I ate a piece that had bittersweet ganache filling and White Chocolate IMBC frosting. I have one word to describe this cake combo: DEADLY! Oh man was it good! Diets don't stand a chance around this stuff!

My kids finished their cakes tonight and I posted all of them under my photos if you want to see them. They did a pretty good job! (Of course I'm the mom so what else would I think! )

As for the recipes, the White Chocolate IMBC is the IMBC recipe from Dede Wilson's book qith 14 oz. White chocolate added to it. I think I remember seeing the recipe posted on CC so you may want to search for it. I love the IMBC's because they aren't grainy, overly sweet and can take on a lot of different flavors really easily. If you can't find that one let me know and I'll try (but it'll have to be later because I just took a pain pill and I'm starting to feel it. Sorry if my typing gets funky! )

franluvsfrosting, What a fantastic job they all did. You must be very proud. You won't need to hire anyone you have 4 great helpers!! I couldn't leave an emotion for Josh, or a comment for your three yr old. I will try tomorrow. The picture wouldn't load, and the emotions weren't working again.

Kat

Melysa,

You talk about a "stick" of butter in your recipe.
How much is that in grams as we have 500g bricks of butter
or baking margarine here and I always put off baking a recipe
that asks for "sticks" as I don't know how much it is.
I would love to try this recipe of yours, it does sound yummy!!