T1B

Got The Cake Bible off of pp's suggestion. GREAT techniques they have in there. I LOVE to bake and some stuff I never even considered will help my baking immensely.

Anyhow, here's a pic I found of a checkerboard cake:



Here's a pic of the one I made tonight. I don't have an "inside" pic yet as I made this for my wife who returns from a 5 day business trip tomorrow. I will take a pic of the inside and post it later.



I will say this. This cake took some TIME to make, but I think it was worth it. I have a work gathering next week where my office is providing the meal and wants us to bring a dessert. I might bring this.

Got updated pictures of the inside of the cake. Turned out great. I think I cooked the cake a tad too long though. It is still very moist, but it is really crumbly. Maybe take it out a minute before. I went by the instructions in THe Cake Bible which reccomended a cook time of 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, the toothpick test came out extremely wet.

I made the Milk Chocolate Buttercream frosting. Oh my it is amazing... I used Dove Milk Chocolate and Semi-Sweet Bakers Chocolate per the recipe.

Anyhow, this is it. Tasted great. Very attractive. I'll be making this for the work party next week. I was also told it would be a great cake to make on the Indy 500.

IndyFrisco wrote: I made the Milk Chocolate Buttercream frosting. Oh my it is amazing...

Indy-

Let me first say Great job with the cake. Presentation looks great and I'm sure it tatsed great as well- but I have to say- this is the gayest line I have ever seen you type. :D

Nice job Indyfrisco.

BBMarley wrote:

IndyFrisco wrote: I made the Milk Chocolate Buttercream frosting. Oh my it is amazing...

Indy-

Let me first say Great job with the cake. Presentation looks great and I'm sure it tatsed great as well- but I have to say- this is the gayest line I have ever seen you type. :D

Then you missed my huge fucking faux pas. Find it in the archive.

Looks yummy!

This is a nice looking cake. I'd probably get a heart attack from eating it.

IndyFrisco wrote:

BBMarley wrote:

IndyFrisco wrote: I made the Milk Chocolate Buttercream frosting. Oh my it is amazing...

Indy-

Let me first say Great job with the cake. Presentation looks great and I'm sure it tatsed great as well- but I have to say- this is the gayest line I have ever seen you type. :D

Then you missed my huge fucking faux pas. Find it in the archive.

I looked.... but every thread in the archive is 7+ pages... care to help me out some?

Sorry dude, but I ain't falling on my sword (or anyone else's ;)). If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you're the "last one" who doesn't.

I'm making the cake again tonight. I'm hoping it turns out a bit better this time. Last one was good, but I could have taken it out of the oven a minute or two earlier.

IndyFrisco wrote:Sorry dude, but I ain't falling on my sword (or anyone else's ;)). If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you're the "last one" who doesn't.

I'm making the cake again tonight. I'm hoping it turns out a bit better this time. Last one was good, but I could have taken it out of the oven a minute or two earlier.

LOL... I'll ask around. LOL

Good luck with cake man

Anyhow, this is it. Tasted great. Very attractive.

Did you fellate the part that stuck up on top?

Well, just finished with my second checkerboard cake. Much better the second time around.

One thing I question....

pp may be able to answer this.

Basically, with a checkerboard cake, I take the sme batter and split it into equal parts. I add chocolate to one part and leave the other part vanilla. Both times I have made this cake, both by using The Cake Bible recipe, the cake I made with chocolate/vanilla/chocolate has come out extremely dry and flakey on the outside. I am able to hide this with the frosting, but I am wondering why it is coming out this way.

I am using a semi-sweet chocolate for the chocolate batter as opposed to bittersweet which the recipe suggests. Other than that, there's nothing I do different.

Any suggestions on why I am getting these results? The cake still tastes fine, but I am just pissed the outer edge of it is flakey as opposed to moist like the rest of the cake.

Signing off,
Perfectionest

IndyFrisco wrote:Sorry dude, but I ain't falling on my sword (or anyone else's ;)

That's because you're pro-sword.

Why do you hate America's bakers?

Indy:

I haven't made the checkerboard cake, nor have I had the issue of having my chocolate cakes turn out flaky on the edges.

I haven't made the checkerboard cake and am not sure about what is going into the batter. Do you add cocoa to the batter, or just chocolate?

Whenever I add cocoa to a previously non-chocolate recipe, I use less flour. I think it works best to keep the dry and wet ingredients at the ratio indicated by the original recipe, if that makes sense. If all you're doing is adding melted chocolate... well, then it would seem that the recipe just makes a flakier-edged chocolate cake. I would think that if you were just adding chocolate, you'd get more moisture due to the added fat content, but maybe I don't know everything! Is it possible that the chocolate batter is cooking faster? Are you checking for doneness as it bakes, or are you just using the recommended time in the book?

In other words, I have no idea why your chocolate cake is drier on the edges than your yellow cake. If it tastes good, don't sweat it. :D

It tastes ok. I use melted chocolate.

The cake just crumbles though. It isn't dried out at all. it just is not holding itself together. I'm extremely frustrated with it. I am going to try the recipe that came with the checkerboard cake pan set instead of The Cake Bible recipe. I am doing EVERYTHIG the recipe in the book calls for and this thing is just so crumbly. You have to eat it with a spoon.

I've NEVER had a cake do this on me. I usually don't use cake flour. that's the only thing I see different in this cake and others I've made. Also, this uses 2 sticks of butter in the batter and only about 4 cups flour. That seems like a lot of butter. 2 cups of sugar too. That seems like a lot of sugar.

I would think that increased butter, sugar, and the addition of the chocolate would make the cake MORE moist, not less. I also doubt it's the cake flour that's the problem.

Huh. I'm going to look at that recipe when I get home and see if I can see an issue. So to get this straight, you make ONE batch of batter, and to half of it you added melted chocolate and that caused all the problems?

Too strange. You could try baking it for less time, if you want to try that cake again. What brand of chocolate did you use? Was it chips or a bar? I use bars ONLY when baking... chips tend to have odd waxy stuff in them, to help them keep their shapes. Could that cause this problem?

If I were you, I'd dump the recipe that came with the pan. Instead I would make the American Butter Cake (I think that's the name) recipe from the CB, in chocolate and yellow, and use those. Make a half-recipe of each, or make 2 checkerboard cakes.

No, I am using bar chocolate. I am using Bakers Semi-Sweet but the recipe calls for Bittersweet. I wouldn't think this wuld be such an issue.

Like I said before, the cake is moist, it just crumbles like an ash off of a cigarette when you try to pick it up with a fork. Right after it crumbles, you can use the back of the fork, press down on the crumbled cake, and it will all stick to the fork for you to eat. That is what is frustrating me. Why the hell does it have to crumble first?

IN any case, the recipe makes a BEAUTIFUL cake. It is a sight for sore eyes I can tell you. I am just wondering if it is simply a recipe for the eyes and not the taste. I am a hell of a baker. Baking ranks right up ther with me along with BBQing and I am damn good at that too. I've never had such a challenge in baking. I want to make this damn thing work. I am tempted to get some Betty Crocker cake mix and see if it does any better. The thing about the CB recipe is that it says this type of recipe makes the batter to where the batte can hold the checkerboard pattern. It IS a thick batter. I has just turned into shitty cake as far as I'm concerned.

ANd no, I know it is not ME that is fuckig up. I know how to follow a recipe. I've done it twice now and have hated it both times.