Are you looking for a choc cake recipe? Toba Garrett's is a good cake. It's simple too, dump everything in the bowl, mix, and pour. LOL I was very leary at first, but it has worked a couple of times for me. I'll post it this afternoon if you need it. I think it's in the "Well Decorated Cake" book.

Mike

Thanks, I have that book. I will try that one next!

How frustrating! I'm sorry it didn't work out Merissa...the sticking is baffling me.

I haven't tried Toba's chocolate cake but I've tried her yellow from that book and it was pretty decent.

I also love this one I found on allrecipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fabulous-Fudge-Chocolate-Cake/Detail.aspx

The only thing I do different is double the amount of chocolate. I love the taste and texture.

I also agree with having your ingredients be room temp.

Yeah, I don't know what is going on. Someone else pm'ed my and said they had the same problem I did. It's a mystery. WAs I supposed to wait until the batter cooled down before pouring it into the pan?

Thanks for still watching this thread. I still appreciate the help and tips. I might not make another scratch for awhile. I am starting to get busy with a couple of cakes and xmas baking. I don't have lots of time to spare to make mistakes!

pat me on the back everyone!! I made an apple cinnamon cake with brown sugar buttercream from the new Elisa Strauss book and I liked it!!

I have all the usual cake books, the one I use the most and is my favorite is "cakelove" by Warren Brown. He has many flavors that are usually not in books. My favorite is a maple pound cake with butter pecan frosting. He does a lot of cakes in bundt pans, which is a good way to start getting used to the different textures of some scratch cakes. Since I grew up with scratch cakes I tend to like my cakes on the drier side. My daughter who is 17, is used to eating her meals at school, where they are moister. i think the trend went to moister cakes, as they last much longer. Warren brown was also on food network, i believe you can find one of his recipes there also.

Hi Merissa,

I'm not sure if you've seen these, but here's a couple threads for "best" scratch cakes used by cc'ers.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-579499.html

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-365233.html

Tammy

Oh hi, thanks! I guess I hadnt been notified of replies for awhile. GUESS WHAT? I tried Toba's cake and I love it! So now I am up to two scratch cakes (apple cinnamon-Elisa Strauss and Toba's chocolate fudge) I also have a brownie from scratch too. whoopee, I am on a roll. Actually the other day I made Elisa Strauss chocolate cake...okay. It was a little dry for me, but okay. Now I guess I will try out white cakes. I will look at the link above too. thanks everyone!

okay so I am really starting to get into this! I just had to say that I made Toba's Lemon Coconut cake! Yum! I also did make her carrot cake. Good...but maybe just a teeny tiny bit too sweet for me. But I might give that one another go. I think I might have loaded it with a bit too much buttercream. so it might have been the icing rather than the cake in this instance. I guess I am having good luck with her recipes. Thanks a lot for the continued help everyone. I think I have to start looking at a white cake now.

In case anyone is still reading this thread I made the WBH golden butter cake and I *think* I like that one too! I only made a 1/2 batch into cupcakes, because I am getting fat testing recipes . So far so good, they taste good and are moist. I hope the cake can retain the moisture. Anyone else use/try this recipe?