Who doesn’t like yellow cake with chocolate frosting?  It’s a classic!  This recipe and photo is from Cook’s Illustrated. The little editorial near the recipe on page 51 of the Spring 2011 edition of Cook’s said everything I want to say about Cake Mixes—chemical emulsifiers and leavening agents, monoglycerides and diglycerides,hydrogenated fats, and artificial food coloring. How about a good yellow cake without all that? This recipe delivers, and it’s moist and fluffy, too!  The taste? Well, it HAS taste!  In my experience, cake mixes turn out cakes high on texture and color with little taste—other than sweet; overly–sweet.

The frosting spreads like a dream, and is rich, smooth, and will knock the socks off anyone who likes chocolate—who doesn’t like chocolate?  The frosting is made with only 1 cup of powdered sugar—as opposed to the usual four cups—and is made with a food processor, not a mixer, which was a first for me. Just a note though, this recipe results in a soft, creamy frosting—kind of like the canned stuff, but again, with TASTE—and none of that thick oily texture; so, if you are wanting a harder, fudge-type frosting, this is not the right recipe.

You just may have found a “go-to” cake for many occasions—it’s relatively easy to pull together, calls for no ultra-fancy ingredients, each layer is high and moist, and then there’s that creamy chocolate frosting… 🙂

Yellow Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 2½ cups (10 oz.) cake flour
• 1¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon table salt
• 1¾ cup (12¼ oz.) sugar—divided use
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled—I used salted, it’s all I had
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk at room temperature—if you bought a whole carton, freeze the leftovers until you are ready to make another cake
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 6 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 3 large egg whites, at room temperature—make a Pavlova or meringue cookies with the leftover egg whites)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Prepare 2 9″ cake pans with 2 inch sides—spray with Pam for Baking, or butter and flour. Line with parchment paper.
3. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1½ cups sugar, and set aside.
4. In another bowl combine melted butter, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and egg yolks, and set aside.
5. Place room temperature egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat eggs until foamy, about 30 seconds. With the mixer running, gradually sprinkle remaining ¼ cup sugar over over egg whites. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form but beaten egg whites still look moist, about 60 seconds.
6. Remove the egg whites from the mixer bowl to another bowl and set aside.
7. In the now empty mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment, pour in the flour mixture. Turn mixer on low. Gradually pour in the liquid ingredients and mix on low for about 15 seconds.  Stop and scrape bowl.  Mix again for another 15-30 seconds or until cake mixture is smooth and creamy.  Remove bowl from mixer.
8. With a rubber spatula fold in 1/3 of the egg whites. When those egg whites have been incorporated add remaining egg whites. Gently fold in egg whites until no white streaks remain.
9. Divide batter between the two prepared cake pans. Now, one at a time, lift the pan off the counter, and gently let it drop back down to remove air bubbles from the batter. Five light taps for each pan will do the trick.
10. Bake cakes in preheated 350° oven for 22-30 minutes or until cake starts to pull away from sides of pan, and a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean.
11. Cool cakes in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto wire rack and cool for an additional hour or hour and a half before frosting.
12. Unfrosted cake layers can be wrapped in plastic and stored in refrigerator for two days, or can be frozen for up to one month. Thaw layers completely before frosting.

Milk Chocolate Frosting

^{Although I think you could substitute any kind of chocolate, semi-sweet, bittersweet, or dark.}

INGREDIENTS

• 2½ sticks unsalted butter (20 tablespoons), soft, but not runny—again, I used salted; it’s all I had on hand
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ¾ cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• ¾ cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 oz. good quality milk chocolate, melted and cooled slightly—I used Hershey Symphony Bars

DIRECTIONS

1. In a food processor, process butter, sugar, cocoa and salt until smooth, about 30 seconds, stopping once or twice to scrape down sides of bowl.
2. Add corn syrup and vanilla to the mixture in the food processor and process until just combined, 5-10 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl and pulse until smooth and creamy, another 10-15 seconds.
3. Frosting can be made up to 3 hours in advance. For longer storage, cover and refrigerate then let sit at room temperature for 1 hour before using.
4. For other cakes, this frosting can be made with dark, semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today! I hope you find a reason to make this cake, because once you make it, I think you’ll make it again and again and again!