Woodland Baker Best Moist Chocolate Cake

So, I’ve recently started watching Youtube tutorials on cake and cupcake making to expand my knowledge on that stuff and I found a really cool channel called Woodland Bakery. They also have a blog: www.woodlandbakeryblog.com. I thought I would try one of their recipes for myself. The Best Moist Chocolate Cake. http://www.woodlandbakeryblog.com/chocolate-cake-2-new-improved/. There is a video and instructions on their blog, but if you don't want to go to the blog or can't for some reason, keep reading.

Best Moist Chocolate Cake from Woodland Bakery:
4T Dutch Process Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3/4 cup or 6 oz. Semi Sweet Baking Chocolate
1/2 cup Hot Water
12 T Softened Butter
4 Large Whole Eggs
2 Egg Yolks (Room Temperature)
1 cup Sugar
1 T Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Regular Yogurt
1/2 cup Milk
1 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Salt

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl whip the eggs and egg yolks on high speed until foamy, then add sugar slowly. If you dont know what a ribbon stage is, it is a stage when you whip eggs where if you turn off the mixer and pull it out, the eggs that come with it should fall off and onto the mixture and stay on top for about 3 seconds before sinking in. If you have a stand mixer, you can let the eggs whip for a while, but if you have a hand mixer, you will want to alternate between whipping the eggs and the next step. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Then, in a separate bowl, combine the milk and yougurt and set aside. Next, in yet another bowl, mix the cocoa powder and hot water together with a whisk until smooth. This should be a kind of muddy mixture. Add into that mixture the melted chocolate, softened butter (about to melt), and vanilla extract and whisk smooth. Your eggs should be ready by now and you can add your chocolate mixture. Whip until uniform, about 30 seconds. Now you should add about a third of your dry mixture. After that is incorporated, add half of the yogurt mixture. Alternate this way until all of your ingredients are combined. At this point you can pour the mixture into cake pans, or into a cupcake pan. This recipe should make 2 thick 8" cake layers or 24 cupcakes. But in my case I halved the recipe and made 6 jumbo cupcakes. My cupcakes baked for a total of 21 minutes, but times will change if you choose a different way to bake this recipe. After cake or cupcakes are cooled, ice with your choice of icing. I prefer some sort of chocolate icing, but it is up to you! Have fun baking and enjoy your creation!

Banana and Cream Cheese Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my family and they all loved them. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup chopped pecans in the cake batter but my family doesn't like pecans, so I left them out. The batter didnt rise a whole bunch, but did rise a little. I tried to put even amounts of batter in each cup, but scooped too much at the beginning, so if I were to do these again I would start with a little bit of batter and then add evenly. All in all, I would definitely want to make these cupcakes again.


Recipe modified from: The Cupcake Paragon Books 2011
Makes 24 cupcakes

1/2 cup butter, softened, or soft margarine
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup sour cream
1 3/4 cups all-perpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

FROSTING
2/3 cup cream cheese
5 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 375˚F/190˚C. Put 24 paper liners into shallow muffin pans.

Place the butter, superfine sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs. Stir in the mashed bananas and sour cream. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and, using a metal spoon , fold into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the paper liners. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until risen, golden, and firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

 

To make the frosting, put the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract in a bowl and blend together with a spatula. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.

 

Spoon the frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe a wavy line of frosting on top of each cupcake and decorate if you would like to.