Chocolate Iced Yellow Cake (photos)

If you were lucky like I was, your mom made this cake for you when you were a kid, and then if your luck continued into adulthood, you stumbled onto someone who loves you enough to make this cake over and over, whenever you ask.

Sunday night, the wife (MHNBPF) made this cake for me. It is old fashioned, as country as your granny and really good.

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Icing

For the Cake, you'll need:

250 grams of AP flour (2 cups)
2 eggs
1 stick of unsalted butter (1/4 pound)
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

2 - 10 inch cake pans
Parchment paper to line pans
Butter to coat pans
Oven preheated to 350 degrees F



Cut parchment paper rounds to line bottoms of pans (helps to remove the cooked layers from the pan and coat inside of pans with butter



Dust pans with AP flour



Cream butter and then add sugar. mix well. Forget the Kitchenaid for a minute. I can remember seeing my mom do all of this with a hand cranked mixer or a wooden spoon.



Add the two eggs - one at a time and mix well.





Weigh 250 grams AP flour



Add the flour slowly in small portions, alternating with milk.



Add salt and 1 Tablespoon baking powder. This seems like a lot of baking powder but as you will see later, it lightens the finished cake and gives it an excellent rise.



Mix well - maybe 3-4 minutes on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom to make certain all of the flour is mixed in.



Add vanilla and continue mixing - another 2 minutes.



Portion the batter into the two pans. It won't look like enough batter but the cake will rise to completely fill the pan.



Smooth out



and bake both layers in a 350 degree oven for not quite 30 minutes until a pick inserted into cake comes out clean. Remove the layers when done and cool in the pans on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Toward the end of cooling, run a sharp knife around the edge to free the cake layers from the side walls of the pans.



This recipe will make a two layer cake that is about six inches high. To make a (taller - more modern)three layer cake, increase the recipe by 1/3.

While the layers cool,

make chocolate frosting.

You'll need

3 cups Powdered sugar
1 stick unsalted butter (melted)
2/3 cup cocoa
1/3 cup milk plus a teaspoon or so additional to make it the consistency you like
1 teaspoon vanilla



Add the melted butter to cocoa in a mixing bowl



Then add the milk and begin mixing a low speed Scrape walls and bottom to be certain all of the cocoa is incorporated.



Increase the speed and slowly add the powdered sugar



and the vanilla. Continue mixing until the icing gets smooth and consistent. Scrape walls and bottom

Here it is! Chocolate Icing!



The only problem is there is pitifully little here to allow for finger samples. What a shame. This stuff always brings back memories of kitchen table after supper family birthday party chocolate cake.

Icing the cake:

When the cake layers have cooled about ten minutes, run a sharp knife around the edge and turn the layers out onto the racks to cool another twenty minutes or so. They need to be nice and cool before icing.



To ice the cake, place a bit of icing on the platter and position the first layer. The wife likes to place parchment paper under the edges of the bottom layer to protect the platter from icing when icing the cake. wWhen all is ready, ice the top of the bottom layer.





and position the top layer.



At this point, the cake needs to be crumb coated. To crumb coat, ice a very thin coat on the cake and then allow the crumb coated cake to rest an hour. This will make it much easier to ice the cake.



After the crumb coat has set into the cake (an hour later), the real icing is (artfully) applied and the paper removed from the bottom edges.



Time to eat cake.







Oh Happy Day!




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