Recipes

Favorite Chocolate Cake

1 ¼ cups unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 ½ cups sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk

1 ¼ cups warm water

1 ¼ cups buttermilk

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Favorite Chocolate Frosting

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup vegetable shortening

2 oz semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ cup dutch-process cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 lbs (8 cups) powdered sugar

¾ cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

Favorite Chocolate Glaze

½ cup heavy cream

4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 teaspoons corn syrup

½  teaspoon vanilla

Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, making sure the baking rack is in the middle of the oven. Prepare two 9” round cake pans by cutting out a piece of parchment or wax paper to line the bottom of them. Grease the pans, place the parchment or wax paper in the bottoms and lightly grease again. Dust the pans with flour (or cocoa powder if you don’t want the white dusting on the finished cakes). Set the pans aside.

Sift together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs, yolk, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix on low speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake the cakes for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Do not overbake! Remove the pans from the oven and set the pans on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Gently run a thin knife around the edges of the pans and unmold the cakes, removing the parchment paper liners from the bottom of the cakes. Let them cool completely, top sides ups, on a wire rack. Trim the tops of the cake layers with a long serrated knife to make them level.

Ingredients:

* 2-1/4 cups sifted cake flour

* 1-1/2 cups sugar

* 3-1/2 teaspoons...