The Goto Cake Recipe

This is a never fail recipe for chocolate cake.  I’ve used it for cupcakes and regular cakes and it’s never failed to deliver a tasty moist product.  It’s an easy recipe and you don’t need a mixer to make the batter.  I always double the recipe and get either 24 cupcakes or 2 8 inch cakes.

If I want to really have some fun with the cupcakes, I’ll make a Swiss meringue buttercream, however my standard American buttercream works as well.

The cake recipe comes from Food.com.

The Swiss meringue buttercream comes from the Preppy Kitchen site.

Preppy Kitchen also has a recipe for chocolate cupcakes that I have tried.  It’s also good, but has a few more ingredients.  One change I have made to the wacky cake recipe is to use 1.5 cups of water and 0.5 cup coffee.  It helps bring out the chocolate flavour.

Here’s a video from Preppy Kitchen making the Swiss buttercream.

I’m No Buddy Valastro!

I like to bake.  I find it enjoyable and relaxing and face it, who doesn’t like a good piece of cake!  One of the more challenging aspects of baking is decorating.  I’ve never been much of an artist, but the nice thing about cake decorating is the cake still taste good regardless of how it looks.

A couple of years ago, a friend introduced me to Russian Piping Tips.  These made decorating much easier.  With one tip, you could create flowers, leaves and many other designs.  Needless to say, I ordered some for myself.

I’ve used them many times and some of the results are in this post.  I mostly use an American buttercream for decorating, however I’m becoming a fan of Swiss meringue buttercream.  I do enjoy the process and I’m always pleased with the final results.

So, go to Amazon, Ali Express or your favorite baking supply store and buy some tips!  Then watch some videos on their usage and try it for yourself.