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How To Sign Up:
If you’d like to join the cooking classes challenge, sign up by joining the Cooking 101: The Basics group on Facebook. Over there you can ask questions, post tips and recipe photos, and help each other along the way.
Please Grab a Button:
If you are following along, the please grab a class button. Put it on your sidebar and/or in your recipe posts you link up (just link it to my home page). I’d love for you to share the classes with your family, friends, on Facebook, and on Twitter!
How the Classes and Challenge Work:
Cooking 101: The Basics is a 16 week class on Wednesdays. I will post a new recipe with tips on getting great results along with pictures. It’s like your own personal online cooking school! Take as long as you need, but once you make the recipe (or a similar version) come back and add your link to the post to share with everyone. No blog…no worries…add your pictures to the Facebook group, we’d all love to see them!
Got questions? Email, leave a comment, but the best place will be the facebook group!
Grab your aprons and let’s get cooking!
WEEK #12 – CAKE
I love cake…chocolate cake, yellow cake, white cake…any kind of cake. It is probably the one dessert I have trouble saying no too. I have to come clean though…I hate store bought cake. If you’ve never had a cake from scratch then you are in for a shock…it’s totally different. Everything about it is different! The taste, the texture, the crumb, the moisture level….everything! However, I promise, there is nothing better than a homemade cake from scratch!
The thing about homemade cake is that it doesn’t really take any more time and effort than a store bought cake mix. You still have to add the oil, eggs, water, etc so the only other part are the dry ingredients. So easy! The other cool part is that you can control the quality. Add premium cocoa powder or organic sugar. It’s up to you.
At first, it might seem that it costs more, but in reality the cost of some flour and sugar is pretty small. Oh and you aren’t limited to whatever flavor box mix you have…you can do whatever you want!
Perfect Chocolate Cake from Scratch
Everyone will rave about your perfect chocolate cake from scratch! It's moist, with deep chocolate flavor. This chocolate cake recipe makes two 8-inch round chocolate cakes, so you can create a chocolate layer cake.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 1 cup hot coffee
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round baking pans.
- Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed (using a stand or handheld mixer) 2 minutes. Stir in hot coffee (the batter will be thin). Pour the batter into prepared pans.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove cake from pans onto wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with your favorite frosting.
- Options: 9×13 pan and bake 35-40 minutes or 24 cupcakes (line muffin tin with paper baking cup, fill 2/3 full) and bake 22 to 25 minutes.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 sliceAmount Per Serving: Calories: 321Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 33mgSodium: 436mgCarbohydrates: 52gFiber: 1gSugar: 33gProtein: 5g
Amazing White Cake
2 3/4 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups, plus 2 tbls sugar
1 tbl baking powder
12 tbl butter, softened
4 large egg whites + 1 large egg
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup water
2 tsps real vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl fitted to an electric mixer. Add softened butter and combine on low speed.
Add egg whites, one at a time, then beat mix in whole egg.
Gently stir in sour cream, water, and extracts, beating to keep the mixture fluffy.
Grease and flour pans of choice: 2-8″ or 9″ round or square cake pans, 1-9″x13″ pan, or 24 cupcake tins (using papers).
Bake at 350F. Bake for 18 minutes, then check every few minutes (5 minute intervals at the most) for cupcakes or layer cakes, 30 minutes for 9″x13″.
!Gluten Free/Vegan Option:
Use my [GF flour blend|https://www.aroundmyfamilytable.com/2013/03/the-best-gluten-free-flour-blend/] (or one that subs cup for cup) plus 1 1/4 tsp xantham gum, use dairy free/vegan options for the butter and sour cream, sub 3 servings egg replacer for the eggs.
{Last week: Hollandaise Sauce Next Week: Pancakes }
For the coffee you mean 1 cup of coffee grinds brewed?
Hi Rebecca, 1 cup of brewed coffee…no grinds. Just the coffee as if you were going to drink it. w-
Hi Wendy!
I wanted to let you know that I loved your chocolate cake recipe so much that I did a post on my blog about it. I featured a link to your page to direct people to the recipe (and it’s creator of course) and took some fun pics of my toddler eating the cake. She enjoyed it as much as my wife and I. I also used this recipe for a wedding cake I made for a family friend. Everyone raved about it! Excellent recipe, thank you for sharing it with the world 🙂
http://daddyandmefoodie.com/2015/10/17/the-perfect-chocolate-cake/
Thanks so much Dawson. Glad you and your family loved it. 🙂 ~w
Every one need good taste cake that you made at your home
Hi there! Sooooo tempted to try this cake but not sure I understand the coffee part. How exactly do I prepare the cup of coffee? Instant? 1 cup with 1 scoop? Just wanna make sure I get this right. Thanks a bunch!!! Forgive my ignorance please.
Hi Veronica! I just use one cup (actually measured one cup…not one cup that you are drinking…lol) of hot coffee. So brew it however you’d normally do it…in a pot, use instant per instructions, etc. Make sense?
I am strange in that I really hate coffee and I am not big on chocolate but everyone else in my family loves chocolate. What can I replace the coffee with without changing the texture and taste of the cake. I do not want to experiment by taste for the previous reasons! 🙂
Hi Julie! I promise you cNt taste the coffee…it just brings out the chocolate flavor. If you really want to sub it out just replace with an equal amount if water. Easy swap!
YOUR RECIPE CALLS FOR HOW MUCH BUTTER EXACTLY. BY THE LOOKS IT SAYS 12LB . MEANING 1/2 I SUPPOSE.
Hi Ann…the chocolate cake actually doesn’t have any butter. The white cake calls for 12 tablespoons (tbls) of butter.
This is a wonderful blog/post. We should spend more time
learning how to make REAL meals. What would we all do if boxed
goods disappeared? Good thing some of us know how to work with what
we’ve got! The chocolate cake looks divine…I’ll have to try the
recipe soon for my son to test…will shout back out atcha once
it’s done!
Hi sweet Wendy! I love your chocolate cake recipe..LOVE. I just recently did one but it’s so very different. Not sure I’ve ever seen coffee used and I’m super lovin the idea. Thanks for all your fab recipes, so glad I got the chance to meet you in person 🙂
Thanks Lala! I love the coffee in this recipe…it totally brings out the chocolate flavor. Loved meeting you too last year…hopefully we can meet up again soon. 🙂
I really like this chocolate cake!!
I must say that here we always make any cake only from scratch
I love cakes from scratch! I am so glad that I found your site today 🙂
I’m glad you found me too! 🙂
Homemade is the best and you can do so much with it that sometimes a cake mix doesn’t do.
Everyone needs a good cake recipe! Nothing beats homemade!
You are so right. Scratch is best. Totally!