Tips for cake

I have a favorite chocolate cake recipe that I go to every time I have a craving for it.  It has also become quite popular among my friends and a very good friend asked me to make it for her daughter's 2nd birthday.  The colors for the party were pink and yellow, so to go with the theme, I colored the icing the brightest pink and yellow I could find.  I also made white chocolate "polka dots" out of tempered chocolate to decorate it.  The result was amazing!

This cake recipe is designed for 3 tiers (4x3 in. cake pan, 6x3 in cake pan, and 8x3 in cake pan).  However, I have divided the batter up in many sizes of cake pans and it turned out great.  (the above picture used larger cake pans, so I had to 1 1/2 this recipe- easy to do and it turns out great)

A few tips for making cake:
1:  Cream the butter and sugars for at least 5 minutes.  This incorporates air into the mixture and it makes the cake light and fluffy.
2:  Add the eggs one at a time and make sure each is fully incorporated into the batter.
3:  Use room temperature ingredients.  It's ok to leave everything out overnight (and longer).  If you have contrasting temperatures among ingredients, the cake won't come together and the texture will be bad.
4:  Alternate the dry and wet ingredients.  This makes for a lighter cake.
5:  Check on your cakes in the oven.  Never go by the times in the recipe.  Everyone's oven is different, so I start checking on my cake 15 minutes before time is up.
6:  Cool the cakes completely, wrap them in plastic wrap, and refrigerate them for a few hours before frosting (if you can).  This make the frosting part so much easier.
7.  To smooth out the frosting on the cake, clean your offset spatula (or knife) and lightly dampened with the warm water.  This will make the frosting smooth and you won't see crumbs.

Chocolate Tiered Cake
3 1/2 cups flour
2 cups cocoa powder (I use Valrhona cocoa powder- excellent quality)
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 recipe Buttercream Icing, follows

Preheat oven to 350
Butter and flour cake pans (sizes noted above) and line the bottom with parchment paper

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside

In the bowl of an electric mixer (or a large bowl with a handheld mixer), cream the butter and 2 sugars for at least 5 minutes until light yellow and fluffy
Add the eggs, one at a time until incorporated
Add the vanilla
Combine the buttermilk and sour cream in a large measuring cup
On low speed, add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture alternately in thirds, beginning with the buttermilk and ending with the flour
Mix only until blended

Divide batter between the cake pans and smooth tops with a spatula
Bake smallest pan for about 35-45 min., medium pan for 50-60 min., and largest for 50-70 min. until a toothpick comes out clean
Cool cakes in the pans for 10 minutes, remove from pans, and cool completely on a rack
Frost cooled cakes

Buttercream Icing
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 pounds powdered sugar
8-10 tablespoons milk (depending how thick/thin you like it)
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
food coloring, optional

Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer or a large bowl with a handheld mixer
Cream the butter for a minute
Add the powder sugar, milk, and vanilla
Mix on low until thickened
Add the food coloring
Mix fully with spatula to make sure the food coloring is fully incorporated
Frost each cake separately and stack