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Hershey's "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Cake

My parents finally decided to buy a stand mixer last month! - Dad loves to be part of the baking fun, but he got tired of mixing/kneading because too much strength was necessary.

And so I started on my very first cake!

Recipe adapted from Hersheys.com

Makes 8-10 servings

Time taken Prep: 30 mins Bake: 40 mins

Ingredients (Cake)

1.5 cups sugar

1.75 cups all-purpose flour

0.75 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

1.5 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

0.5 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING (recipe follows)

Method (Cake)

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 20cm square baking pan.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING.

Ingredients (Frosting)

0.5 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

1 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

2.1 cups powdered sugar

0.5 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method (Frosting)

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.

Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Results

I had the oven preheated at 350°F. When I placed the batter into the oven, I did not realize that the temperature was changed to 410°F. The strange thing was that even though the temperature was higher than indicated in recipe, my cake still took a longer time to be done.

The bottom of the cake cracked...

I had misread the instructions and removed the cake from the pan for the first cooling. Perhaps that's why the cake cracked

The icing was slightly too sweet even though I had reduced the amount of sugar. Hence I topped up the Cocoa powder. The icing had a pretty good consistency though!

Refrigerated the cake for a few hours before trying. The cake is a little bit too dense and I'm not sure why I could taste the 'soda'.

The cake was not very sweet so it was a good balance with the sweet frosting.

Note

Perhaps a little less sugar for the frosting?

Read somewhere that it is important not to overmix the floor. Otherwise the cake may sink too much (hence dense) after rising.

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Banana Bread

Had my 1st proper baking experience last night! I baked banana bread (⌒▽⌒)☆

Recipe adapted from SimplyRecipes.com

Makes 10-12 slices

Time taken Prep: 20 mins Bake: 48mins

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas

Approx 1/3 cup melted butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

0.5 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.5 cups of plain flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C), and butter a 24x13-cm loaf pan.

In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until completely smooth. Stir the melted butter into the mashed bananas.

Mix in the baking soda and salt. Stir in the sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour.

Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 48 minutes (175°C)

Remove from oven and cool completely on a rack. Remove the banana bread from the pan. Slice and serve.

Results

Sliced the banana bread and took a bite while the it was still hot (less than 10minutes of cooling). The surface tasted hard and the inner was really dense. Didn't really like it.

Left the bread overnight and had it for breakfast, this time it tasted better. The surface was softer and the bread was slightly fluffier.

According to comments on SimplyRecipes, banana bread will taste more like pound cake then actual bread. So not to worry if your banana bread seems different from normal bread!

Note

Do not overmix! Or else the banana bread will turn out too dense.

It's important to cool the bread! It is too let the starch set in and is a crucial part of the baking process.

I should use a smaller loaf pan for this recipe. The pan was too wide!