Chowhound Toronto Jo provided this recipe for Easy Chocolate Layer Cake in Feb. 2019
EASY CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE
8 oz dark chocolate, chopped
3 c. flour
1 ½ c. sugar
2 t baking soda
1 t. salt
2 c. water (Toronto Jo uses a cup of coffee in place of half the water)
2/3 c. vegetable oil
2 T. white vinegar
2 t. vanilla extract
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring once or twice during heating. Cool slightly. Grease and flour two 9” round baking pans (be sure to grease the pans very well – the cake is so moist that it can be difficult to turn out – I always use parchment rounds at the bottom). Stir together dry ingredients. Add melted chocolate and remaining ingredients. Beat on medium speed until thoroughly blended. Pour into pans. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. Frost as desired.
Important: this cake is actually better on day 2. It’s ok on day 1. It’s awesome on day 2 and beyond – it gets more moist and chocolatey.
Dessert is served! Perfect for a snowy day; I’m about to head a out to do rather a lot of shoveling
I used three of the four layers I had (didn’t think I’d have enough frosting for all four, and honestly, mom and I don’t need all this cake.) It was half a recipe, baked in two 6” pans; they are 3” high and I loved how much rise I got. First time baking in them.
Whipped ganache made with bittersweet Ghirardelli.
A very good cake, even though I made a hundred dumb mistakes making it. Curious how well it will eat tomorrow.
I think I’ll make the frosting with milk chocolate after all. It’s a bit much, even applied sparingly.
I am tremendously impressed, and very VERY envious. I’ve tried baguettes twice and have yet to get satisfactory results. My shaping is not yet up to snuff.
Also, how do you add steam to your oven? A Dutch oven doesn’t work for baguettes from a geometry perspective.
Some time ago I was gifted with a box of extremely artisanal North Carolina cornmeal, with which I tried to make cornbread. It was very stressful. I used the recipe that came with the gift, but wound up having to video chat with my North Carolina friend to get live guidance after I made the batter and decided it was extremely incorrect. The doctored batter produced a nice cornbread but I was secretly disappointed.
Today I tried again with a fresh bag of the “bloody butcher” cornmeal variety. I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and my own frozen corn from my stash.
The cornmeal is darker than commercial cornmeal so the finished cornbread is also darker, but this was DELICIOUS.
Can’t wait to have some tomorrow with buttermilk poured over!
