How to Bake a Perfectly Moist Chocolate Cake

Related post: Frequently Asked Questions for the Chocolate Cake, posted here.

title #2: The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe

title #3: Just Like How Ma Used to Make: The Chocolate Cake

title #4: The Great Chocolate Cake

Decisions, decisions.

I have been deep in thought. I don't know what title pick for this post. I have several choices and all them fit to a "T" because this cake... it's definitely the bestest.

This is my Ma's recipe. She got it from Auntie Fely, who is the best baker on earth. The recipe is written in an old Merit notebook that I will treasure forever. It has the best cake recipes. I'm telling  you, the book is magic. Everything from this notebook turns out wonderful. I wonder where she got it from? The Cake Fairy maybe.

I cannot begin to tell you how heavenly this cake is. For me, it doesn't even need a frosting. It is chocolatey enough on its own. This is the recipe I used here, here, here and oh.. here as well.

The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (all purpose flour is okay, but you can find cake flour, it would be better)

1 ½ cup sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ cup water

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure
1. In a bowl, mix mayonnaise and sugar until smooth

2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder. It's up to you if you'd like to sift or dry whisk. Just make sure all four ingredients are well mixed. Both works for me.

3. Add a third of the flour mixture to the mayonnaise mixture

4. Add 1/2 of the water required. Now don't be discouraged if it looks sloppy once the water is added. It'll come together, pinky swear.

5. Repeat #3 and #4 until the flour mixture and water has been added to the mayonnaise mixture. Add the vanilla extract last.

6. Pour into a well greased pan and bake at 350F for 40-50 mins for cakes and 12-15 minutes for cupcakes. Make sure to tap the pans used to let the air out before baking, okay?

I know I said this cake doesn't need frosting. But what's a cake without frosting? (read: someone had a fork ready and took a big chunk of the cake so I had to do a cover up)

So, in case someone can't wait to take a bite out of your chocolate cake. Here's the perfect cover-up.

Whipped Chocolate Ganache

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract (if you're feeling fancy, you can add Kahlua, too)

1. Chop chocolate and transfer into a heat proof bowl.

2. Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, pour cream through strainer, over the chocolate.

3. Let sit for 1 minute then stir until combined.

4. Add butter stir until combined.

5. Cool ganache in the refrigerator overnight. Then beat/whip until fluffy. 

Happy Cupcaking, 

Aikko