Baked By Buttercup: Update: Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Update: Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

Last night I went over to Sean and Jen's house for dinner. Jen's sister Amy is in town from Michigan with her husband Matt and adorable sons Luke and Gabe. I met the boys last year for the first time, and was fortunate to experience the youngest, Gabe, eat his first cake at just 1 year old. Naturally, I so excited to give him cake again this year.

Since I was baking for a purpose and knew my cousins love chocolate cake, I decided to stick with what I knew would be delicious. I stuck with the same Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake I made in January, but I made a two notable additions to it.

First, I added a ½ teaspoon of almond extract to the batter. I've used almond extract in a yellow cake before and it was so delicious. Something about it spoke to me while I was baking yesterday, so I decided to go for it. I could really taste it in the uncooked batter, but the taste was slight in the baked cake. I might add a little more next time, simply because I can.

Secondly, I added chocolate chips to the batter. Ummmm...amazing. I had hoped that they would spread out evenly through out the layer, but they sank to the bottom. It was then that I remembered Erin's comment on the Crazy Nut Bread:

To prevent the cranberries and walnuts from sinking to the bottom of the loaf, try tossing them in flour prior to adding them to the batter. Then put the loaves in the oven as soon as possible.

So, I guess I should have tried tossing the chocolate chips in flour before adding them to my cake. Next time I will surely remember this little step!! Either way, it turned out great. The chocolate chips were like having an additional layer in my cakes. So tasty!

This cake was also an opportunity to practice some fancy decorating. I'm really starting to consider taking a cake decorating class this summer because I am not as confident in my decorating as I would like to be. I'm not awful and I still have that "homemade" feel to everything I do (that's the nice way of saying it's not always stiff and perfect), but I would like to be less scared of frosting a cake!

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my amazing chocolate cake!!