Sometime in 2020, fed up with trying to pick a cake recipe every time I wanted to bake, I decided to just combine the best parts of my favorites and see if it worked. Not surprisingly, it did, and I’ve been using it as my standard cake recipe since. It adapts well to substitution for milk and eggs, does beautifully with half whole-grain flour, and will probably turn out fine with vegan butter or 1:1 GF (though I haven’t tried either). And it’s high time I posted something about baking, so here you go.
Fluffy Fudge Cake
1 c unsalted butter*, softened
1 c granulated sugar
1 c packed brown sugar
3 eggs
2 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 t baking soda
2 1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt*
1 1/2 c milk OR 1 3/4 c buttermilk OR 3/4 c plain yogurt mixed with 1 c milk
2 t vanilla
Heat oven to 350F. Prepare pan/s:
9×13, or a cake that will be served in the pan: grease well
Round or square pans: grease well, line bottoms with parchment, grease parchment and lightly flour pans
Cupcakes: grease flat top areas of pans and line wells with cupcake papers
Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Combine milk and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup; set aside. Cream butter with sugars until aerated and lightened in color. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down bowl after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients, beating only until combined. If using an electric mixer, scrape bottom of bowl well and beat batter one last time. Pour into prepared pan/s and bake:
Two 8-inch pans or 9×13: about 35 min
Two 9-inch pans: about 28 min
24-30 cupcakes: about 20 min
Test for doneness with a toothpick poked into the center; if sticky or sludgy batter comes out, bake 2-3 min longer. Cake is done with pick comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Cool in pan/s 5 min, then remove to a cooling rack if appropriate. Frost as desired.
*If you only have salted butter, or if your vegan sub is salted, add just a pinch of salt to dry ingredients or omit it altogether.
Death By Chocolate cupcakes:
Use 1 3/4 c buttermilk OR 3/4 c yogurt mixed with 1 c milk. Add 1 c chocolate chips with the last of the flour mixture. Divide among 30 cupcake papers and bake/cool as directed. Top with chocolate frosting mixed with desired amount of crushed Oreo cookies (or similar chocolate sandwich cookies).
Mexican hot chocolate variation:
Increase vanilla to 1 T. Add 1 T ground cinnamon and 2 t chile powder (any heat you like, just be sure it’s ONLY chile and doesn’t have garlic or cumin in it) to the flour mixture. Bake/cool as directed.