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00:00 Hi, I'm Stephanie Jaworski of joybaking.com.
00:10 Today we're going to make a simple chocolate cake and this is what it looks like.
00:14 We have two layers of a soft and moist chocolate cake and then we're going to fill it and frost
00:19 it with a chocolate frosting.
00:22 So to start, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 180 degrees Celsius,
00:29 and then you will need two 9-inch, that's 23 centimeter, cake pans.
00:37 And mine have about a 2-inch, 5 centimeter sides.
00:41 And then what we're going to do is either lightly butter our pans or I'm just spraying
00:46 with one of the non-stick sprays.
00:49 And then I like to line the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment paper.
00:53 If you don't have parchment paper, then I would butter and flour the pans.
00:58 And then, really, I called it a simple chocolate cake because this batter is really simple.
01:05 We don't need our electric mixer for this.
01:07 We're just going to mix it by hand.
01:09 Really it's just mixing all the ingredients together.
01:12 So in a large bowl, I have one and three quarter cups, which is 245 grams of all-purpose flour.
01:20 You may know that as a plain flour.
01:21 And to that, I'm going to add two cups, 400 grams of granulated white sugar, and then
01:29 three quarters of a cup, 75 grams of unsweetened cocoa powder.
01:34 Now you could use either the natural or the Dutch processed cocoa powder, either one.
01:43 And then I like to sift it because it tends to have lumps.
01:47 So I've done that ahead of time, but you can do that at home.
01:50 And then to that, I'm going to add one and a half teaspoons of baking soda, which is
01:56 seven grams by weight, one and a half teaspoons of baking powder, that's six grams, and then
02:03 a half a teaspoon of salt.
02:06 And that's it.
02:07 And then we're just going to stir this together, or I'm going to whisk, actually.
02:09 You want to make sure, especially you want to make sure that baking soda and the baking
02:14 powder is really mixed in.
02:17 And keep in mind that the type of cocoa powder, whether you're using the just natural or Dutch
02:24 processed, along with the brand you're using, will affect both the color and the taste of
02:31 your chocolate cake.
02:35 So that's it for that.
02:36 And then for your wet ingredients, I have two large eggs here, and I'm just going to
02:42 whisk those.
02:45 Now if you wanted to use your electric stand mixer, you could, because really you just
02:49 dump everything in and mix it together.
02:52 But I don't want to bother pulling my mixer out, so I'll just do it by hand.
02:57 And then we're going to add one cup, 240 milliliters of milk.
03:04 And you can use either full fat or reduced fat, whatever you have in the house.
03:10 And one cup, 240 milliliters, of either, you can just use water, just tap water, or coffee.
03:17 I'm using, I had some coffee left over this morning, so that's what I'm doing.
03:22 And I like, if you like coffee, then you know that coffee and chocolate kind of go together,
03:28 so you might want to do that.
03:30 And then we're not using butter here, we're using a flavorless oil, a half a cup, 120
03:38 milliliters, and you can use like a vegetable, a corn, a canola, a safflower, even a light
03:43 olive oil, whatever you have.
03:46 And the good part about oil in a cake is it does give it a nice soft texture, but then
03:53 if you want to refrigerate your cake, it doesn't get hard like butter does, you know, butter
03:58 firms up in the fridge, so your cake will get hard.
04:01 But this, it still stays soft.
04:03 And then for flavoring, I'm adding one and a half teaspoons of pure vanilla extract.
04:10 And that's it.
04:12 So now all I'm going to do is pour my wet into my dry.
04:18 Simple enough.
04:25 And then just whisk it or stir it together.
04:33 It is, as you can see, really simple to make.
04:37 This is one of those kind of cakes if you want to make it during the week, you could
04:40 just, you know, a couple hours before.
04:46 The hardest part of this batter is measuring your ingredients, and if you weigh them, which
04:50 I like to do, it makes it even a lot easier.
04:53 So you can get this cake together and in the oven in less than 15 minutes.
04:58 Not too bad.
05:00 Okay, that looks good.
05:03 Now this will be, this is quite thin, this batter.
05:07 So don't go, don't worry about that.
05:09 It's the way it's supposed to be.
05:11 Let's get that quick stir, you want to make sure there's no flour on the bottom there.
05:23 And then take your cake pans and evenly divide your batter between the two pans.
05:35 This bowl is a little heavy.
05:46 And you can just eyeball this, the amount, or what I'm going to do, if you have a scale,
05:56 which is a handy thing to have in your kitchen, what I always like to do is weigh, because
06:06 sometimes I find I'm not that accurate.
06:15 That way I know that they're going to bake in the same amount of time.
06:19 Actually, hold on.
06:22 So that's a good way of doing it.
06:26 So now we're just going to put them in the oven for somewhere between 28 and 32 minutes,
06:33 I find.
06:34 But everybody's oven is different, so I would check these like a couple minutes before that,
06:40 because you don't want to over bake them and then they'll be dry.
07:00 Okay, our chocolate cakes are done.
07:12 They look gorgeous.
07:14 A toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean.
07:18 And then you can just see they're just starting to pull away from the edges of the pan.
07:23 So now what we're going to do is just let them cool on the wire rack in the pans for
07:27 about 10-15 minutes, and then when we come back I'll show you how to take them out of
07:33 the pans.
07:35 So now, to take our cakes out of the pan, what I first like to do is take a little butter
07:39 and then just run it over our cooling rack, so that way our cake won't stick.
07:47 And then once you do that, then take either a knife or just a spatula, just to make sure,
07:54 I know we did grease the pans, but make sure it's not sticking.
08:01 And then just take a rack, flip, so and then peel off parchment paper, so, and then we're
08:15 going to flip it onto our greased rack.
08:19 Okay, so now what we're going to do is let those completely cool, and when we come back
08:24 we'll start our chocolate frosting.
08:28 So now, for our chocolate frosting, the first thing we need to do is melt our chocolate.
08:32 Now you could do it in the microwave, but I prefer to have a saucepan of simmering water
08:37 and then just put your chocolate in a heatproof bowl over that.
08:41 So you will need 6 ounces, which is 180 grams of dark chocolate.
08:46 Now you can use, depending on how sweet your frosting, you know, you like it, you can use
08:52 a semi-sweet, you can use a bitter sweet, or you could even use an unsweetened chocolate.
08:58 My personal preference and what I'm using today is a, I'm using about a 61% cocoa, which
09:07 is kind of in that semi-sweet, not quite a bitter sweet, so anywhere between 60 to 70%
09:13 will give you not too sweet of a frosting.
09:16 So heatproof bowl, excuse me, heatproof bowl, and just put that over your saucepan.
09:23 Now use a good quality chocolate, one that you just like to eat on its own, because you
09:28 want a really nice tasting frosting.
09:30 So I'm just going to melt that.
09:33 Okay, it looks melted, so take it off the heat, and then it's a little warm.
09:41 So what I'm going to do is just let it sit until it cools down to room temperature, and
09:47 then we will make our frosting.
09:50 Okay for our chocolate frosting, I'm just going to make it in a large bowl with my hand
09:55 mixer.
09:56 You could use your stand mixer if you have one.
09:58 So you will need 1 cup, 226 grams of butter, either salted or unsalted, whatever you like.
10:05 And have that at room temperature, and then I'm just going to beat that just until it's
10:11 nice and creamy and smooth.
10:26 And next I'm going to add 2 cups, that's 230 grams of confectioner's sugar, you may know
10:33 that it is either powdered or icing sugar.
10:36 And once you measure it, then sift it, because powdered sugar tends to have lots of lumps.
10:42 Then I'm going to add that, and then also for flavoring, I'm going to add 2 teaspoons
10:49 of pure vanilla extract.
10:52 I'm just going to do this a little by hand, because once I start that mixer, it tends
10:59 to kind of fly up in your face.
11:03 And then what we're going to do is just beat this to get a little air into it, so until
11:08 it's nice and fluffy.
11:16 Okay, that looks good.
11:37 And so now lastly, I'm just going to put in that melted chocolate, and make sure to let
11:41 that really cool down, because if we put hot melted chocolate in there, we're going to
11:48 get soup, which we don't want.
11:50 So just cool that down.
11:57 So now I'm just going to beat it, start on low speed and then increase it to medium high,
12:03 just until it's really nice and light and fluffy and has a nice shine to it.
12:10 So probably, you know, maybe 3-4 minutes.
12:22 Okay, so there we have it.
12:35 Doesn't that look gorgeous?
12:38 And tastes really good too.
12:41 Okay so, that's what you're looking for.
12:46 Creamy and smooth and just wonderful.
12:49 So what I'm going to do is just clean up, and when we come back, I'll show you how to
12:53 frost a cake.
12:56 Okay so now we're ready.
12:57 So put one of your layers on either like a cake pedestal or just a plate.
13:06 And I would say maybe a cup or so.
13:11 Just kind of eyeballing it.
13:14 Depends how much, if you like a lot of frosting in your middle layer, I tend to.
13:20 And just spread it.
13:24 I'm just using an offset spatula, you can just use a knife for this.
13:33 Okay, looks pretty good.
13:40 And then just take your second layer, and make sure when you do this that your cakes
13:58 have cooled off because otherwise you'll end up melting your frosting if your cake is still
14:04 warm.
14:05 Okay, so now we're just going to frost.
14:27 So when you do this, I usually just put the frosting on the top and then I just take it
14:33 and go down the sides.
14:36 Remember this isn't, it's just like an everyday cake, it doesn't have to be really fancy.
14:42 So that's kind of how I do it.
14:46 Just go back and forth and just work your way around the cake.
14:59 So now just finish off the top.
15:04 Really I like to leave this, I don't like to get too fancy, I'm not piping or anything,
15:09 I just kind of, you can just go back and forth and kind of get a pattern that you like.
15:13 You can kind of go on the sides and get it all fancy or whatever you want, but I'm kind
15:25 of happy with that.
15:26 And if you wanted you could put some sprinkles, if it's for the kids, a birthday cake, put
15:31 some sprinkles on top.
15:34 And then if you want to clean up the sides, just take a paper towel and just run it around
15:41 to clean it up.
15:42 But you know what, I'm pretty happy with that.
15:45 Great, I mean it's just such an easy cake to make and it's so good.
15:50 So let's cut a slice.
15:53 So I'm going to take a knife and just, and then if you want a clean cut, you can wipe
16:00 off your knife between cuts.
16:08 So I'm going to put it this way today.
16:23 Doesn't that look gorgeous?
16:25 I just love the, like the difference in the color, the really dark chocolate of the cake
16:30 and then the light colored frosting.
16:32 I just, well, I'm a big fan of chocolate cake.
16:35 So anyways, let's have a little bit.
16:45 That's really nice.
16:48 The cake is really soft, very moist, nice chocolate flavor.
16:53 And then of course the kind of fudgy chocolate frosting, really nice.
16:59 Great thing about this, you can keep it at room temperature or I tend to store it in
17:05 the cake just because I like the frosting to get kind of hard.
17:09 So I would say, you know, three to five days at least.
17:13 So enjoy.
17:14 And until next time, I'm Stephanie Jaworski of joybaking.com.
17:29 (whooshing)