My birthday was on Saturday and this year I decided to bake myself a chocolate cake. I have never had a big birthday party but my mom always made sure I had some kind of cake. After I got married cake became less important but my husband always remembers and does something for me. I bake for him but this is the first time I did it for me. It feels good, though it is way too much cake.
I made this chocolate cake using the Hershey’s recipe on the cocoa powder. I decided to share this recipe because Hershey’s cocoa powder is not found in other countries like Zimbabwe. I think it will still work with good quality cocoa powders from other companies. I will say this though, I have not tried it with other cocoa powders so I do not know what the actual results will be but I think it would work too. 
The recipe is so easy and done in one bowl. The only change I made was using hot coffee instead of hot water. It deepens the taste of the chocolate. Something I learnt from watching Food Network. The first time I made this cake , I thought I had ruined it because the cake batter is very runny.
I used a different recipe for the frosting and I can not remember where I got the recipe from. I am not very good with frosting a cake so I watched a free course from Craftsy last year on buttercream frosting. It helped me a lot and now I can show you a decently frosted cake. Placing your cake in the freezer before frosting really makes your cake less crumbly. I need better cake tins though, I have glass which are slanted on the sides and are not deep enough. They make the frosting very difficult.
Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
-
1
cup
hot coffee
Frosting - 2 3 ⁄4 cup powdered sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 6 tablespoons butter softened
- 5 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
-
Heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9 inch baking pans.
-
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
-
Add eggs, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed for two minutes. Stir in the hot coffee. Pour into pans.
-
Bake 30 -35 minutes or until a tooth pick when insert ed comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting -
In a medium bowl, sift together powdered sugar and cocoa. Set aside.
-
In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with milk. Stir in vanilla extract. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.
