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I’m a self-proclaimed cake-o-phobe. In my mind, baking cakes are like gargantuan hurdles in my short culinary life that I have to go over someday. I’m scared to disappoint my overcritical self with sub-par results. Last week, I finally baked cake, but not without slight mishaps.

Yes, the outcome of this Ghirardelli Grand Fudge Cake recipe was really good and it was fudge-y the next day. That made me think that it needed some “rest” period. But…[there's always a but!] I wish I stopped at that and tossed the idea of making the frosting.

Ghirardelli Grand Chocolate Cake

Perhaps it is bad idea to tell you all about my first fudge cake and the forgettable chocolate buttercream frosting that I put on it considering that we’re asking you to vote for us for the Death by Chocolate Contest. Is it?

Please register and Vote for Gourmeted between February 4 and 8. Won’t you please, please — vote for the newbie on the block?
We’ll all have a chance to win a trip to Napa Valley for the annual Death by Chocolate Festival. We’ll take you there with pictures and send you postcards from beautiful Napa, if you want. ;-)
It’s a win-win situation! What are you waiting for? Go vote!

I’m only keeping it real, folks. Sometimes the recipes just don’t work out. And sometimes, you get a leaning tower of pisa out of your first layered cake:

And well, the icing job is, uhm…”cute” at most. It was difficult to spread, in addition to the fact that I did accidentally break the cake when I transfered them so the surfaces aren’t even and pieces of cake kept clinging to the icing when I try to spread them. [Any ideas from cake experts out there on how I can do a good job at this?]. I don’t know if it would be any better if we had an icing spatula:

When the cake dough was baking I suddenly realized that we didn’t have a cake dish. Good thing the biggest round plate we have still has an inch to spare.

The recipe I used for both the cake and icing was from the recipe on the can of Ghirardelli Natural Unsweetened cocoa. I’ve had 90% success with recipes on packages so I was expecting some good results.

The batter of the cake was oh my…I could’ve just stopped with the procedure there and ate it by myself. I knew the cake would taste good from the batter:

I practiced self-control and probably avoided a stomachache, and eventually poured it into the pans and allowed these babies to bake for 30 minutes:

Until they form these pretty gentle-sloping domes:

Beautiful.

If you’d like to try this recipe, it’s posted below. I’m skipping the buttercream frosting recipe because it wasn’t good, but if you insist on having the recipe, just let me through the comments section and I’ll send it to you. If you have a good recipe for chocolate (buttercream or not) frosting, please do share!

Ghirardelli Grand Fudge Cake
[also available at the Ghirardelli site's recipe section]

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup(s) Unsweetened Cocoa
  • 2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
  • 1 3/4 cup(s) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon(s) baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon(s) baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
  • 1 cup(s) butter or margarine, softened
  • 1 1/3 cup(s) milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoon(s) vanilla

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and lightly flour two 9-inch round cake pans. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low, and add vanilla and eggs one at a time, scraping bowl after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk (starting and ending with the flour mixture), while mixing on low speed. Continue to mix until smooth. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center of cake comes out clean.