My regular chocolate cake recipe, which uses oil and coffee, no sour cream or butter, tastes awesome and is a tempermental brat. Last time I made it, it fell apart as I was taking it out of the pan. I was able to put it together, but I cannot imagine what it would do with a 14" pan!!

My game plan: (but first, a question or two)

- I bought that little Wilton pan for the middle of the cake, but I don't like the idea of it. When you put a flower nail in, does it come right out of the bottom?? 

- parchment paper the bottom - chocolate cakes - do they all stick to the bottom?? Ask me how I know.

- oven generally 325 for bigger cakes???

- I also bought the bake strips to use

- a large cookie sheet (I actually have a full size sheet cake pan, heavy aluminum I think, compliments of a closing local restaurant to turn it over on

- how long can I freeze chocolate cakes for? (double wrapped in Saran??)

Thank you! I am making this cake for April 5th, and want to bake the layers ahead of time, since it is four tiers. 

Best,

Nancy

Is your recipe the Epicurious "Double Chocolate Cake"? I use that recipe often, and I always freeze the layers. I've baked 14 inch layers with no problem. The cake stays moist and fabulous no matter the size.

I always use parchment in the pan, never use bake strips, and bake at 325, just a little longer than the 10 inch used for the original recipe. The cake freezes very well. I wrap each layer in plastic wrap, then foil, then in plastic again just to be safe! The cake should be fine frozen until April. I hope this helps!

AWill the epicurious double chocolate cake stack well & hold up to fondant?

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4577/wedding-cake-rich-dark-chocolate-cake

I've used this recipe often - tastes delicious and when I made the ivory wedding cake (in my photos) the chef at the venue said it cut beautifully.

Its a 30 cm /12 inch cake but if you multiply the ingredients by 1.4 that should scale up to a 14" cake.

http://www.deliaonline.com/community/yourrecipes/baking/Scaling-cake-ingredients.html

Hope that helps.

Thank you, everyone, for the advice and the recipes. 

Yes, my chocolate cake recipe is going to have to go to the Graveyard for Tempermental Recipes. 

Nancy

I'm not sure, I use buttercream exclusively.

Hi,

You don't happen to have the ingredients in volume, would you? Sorry, I just worry I will mess it up when I do the exchange!
Nancy

Yes, it is!! Glad to see it's good,
Nancy

Hi flourchild,

I am going to make this today for my 14 inch pan for practice. Do you double the recipe? Or  use as it? I'm thinking that, as is, it would fill two 10" pans, so I think it would be fine for a 14" pan with some leftover. 

Thanks for any help, I have the most trouble figuring out how much to make for each layer, even with the charts.

Nancy

I'm sure 1 recipe should be fine for one 14 inch cake. I always have little cakes in my freezer made from leftover batter because I'm so bad at scaling recipes!

AIt actually came out OK, I might add 1/4 to it next time if I wasn't too lazy to do the math. It came out to 1 1/2 inches tall.