Chocolate Cake

This is Connor's favorite (and always requested for his birthday) cake. It's my go to chocolate cake recipe.

For a regular cake, or for cupcakes, use the quantities below and for a 3-tier cake use the quantiles in (). For the 3-tier you'll need to bake in 2 rounds, each round will be enough for 1 large, 1 medium and 1 small layer. For an event (like a birthday party) I will typically bake 2 days before & decorate 1 day before.

Ingredients

1¾ cups all-purpose flour (2⅝ cups x 2 rounds)

2 cups white sugar (3 cups x 2 rounds)

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (1⅛ cups x 2 rounds)

2 teaspoons baking soda (3 teaspoons x 2 rounds)

1 teaspoon baking powder (1½ teaspoons x 2 rounds)

1 teaspoon salt (1½ teaspoons x 2 rounds)

2 large eggs (3 large eggs x 2 rounds)

1 cup of strong brewed coffee (1½ cups x 2 rounds)

1 cup buttermilk (1½ cups x 2 rounds)

½ cup vegetable oil (¾ cup x 2 rounds)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (1½ teaspoons x 2 rounds)

Directions

Preheat to 350 degrees F

Prepare the baking tins by lining with 2 layers of parchment and use a little spray oil

Make the coffee so that it has time to cool before you need to add it to the other wet ingredients - you don't want the heat from the coffee to start cooking the eggs before the cake gets into the oven

If you're planning on making the buttermilk from scratch get that started now so that it has time to curdle before you need to add it to the other wet ingredients

Sift the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda)

Use a medium sifter/strainer so that you can lift the strainer up (more air) and still have the ingredients make it into the mixing bowl

In a separate bowl add the wet ingredients (eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and coffee) and mix with a hand mixer.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry while slowly mixing until they are all combined

Bake for 30-40 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes before attempting to get them out of the cake pans.

If you're doing a 3-tier, clean everything and start over until you've got all 6 layers ready to go.

Wait until the cake layers are cold before attempting to decorate them

To Decorate

Start by laying out all the gear, once you start you'll need to be able to grab stuff quickly.

Mix up the buttercream frosting and start the basic cake assembly. I use cake supports to help keep everything level as I work

Because this cake is a kid theme, and will only be seen over a zoom call (yea lockdown) I could get away with a relatively thin layer of buttercream icing. For a more polished look you'd need a thinker layer to hide the texture of the cake

I like to decorate 1 layer at a time. If the cake has to travel I box up the layers separately and then assemble at the destination. But since this cake isn't going anywhere I could assemble it the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight

Start with a sketch, several long lectures by a newly 8 year old in the intricacies of ROBLOX a couple of quick ROBLOX games for inspiration and then you're ready to start

Oh, and by the way, please add this to the top of the cake mom! Sure, no problem.

Had to redo piggy twice because I failed to get her eyes right

Must have the donut shop from 'Adopt Me'

And when he's not looking, add a secret clue to a hidden key