Kira Hanson

Baking Blog #3: Birthday Cake



                        

2 cups white sugar

                                        

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 eggs

                    

1 cup milk

              

1/2 cup vegetable oil

                     

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

            

1 cup boiling water 

 

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

 

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

 

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

 

1 teaspoon salt

                                       

 

      I used the creaming method to bake this cake, which is the same method my baking and pastries class used to make cookies in one lab and a cake in another. Learning how to bake a soft, moist cake in class during the cake lab helped me to successfully bake this cake here at home for my project. My preparation method and technique greatly influenced my final product. I really wanted my cake to be light and fluffy, but not so fragile that it would crumble easily. I used very precise measurements and was sure to keep close to the recipe in order to achieve my goal of a very moist, rich cake. In the past, I have baked cakes for too long in the oven, for I always wanted to be sure I wasn't feeding people cake batter instead of actual cake, so I was sure to consistently check my cake with a toothpick to check the doneness of it. I knew that the person I was baking the cake for really liked chocolate, so I added in an extra tablespoon of cocoa powder in order to give the cake a more robust flavor.

     The appearance of the cake is not all that captivating, but it did turn out the way I intended. The person whose cake it is wanted little frosting, so I only put a rim of frosting on the cake and used the persons favorite color, purple. The words are written in gel and are the persons second favorite color; I used gel because I didn't want to over do it on the frosting. Taste was pretty strong in the chocolate category, but again turned out as intended. I'm not one for such a strong flavor, but the birthday person liked it, so I think it was a success. I was very happy to learn that the texture was moist, as I had hoped for, and help together well (the crumbs didn't get all over the place). Overall, the cake smelled like cocoa powder and frosting. It was a mildly sweet aroma.

     I would absolutely make this again! Cake is something that is fun to make and a blast to eat, plus I do like chocolate. The only thing I would do differently for next time is not add in the extra cocoa and, rather, follow the recipe. One thing I learned from this experience is that making a cake is not such a major challenge, as I thought it would turn out to be. I gained confidence in my ability to create a tasty product.