Double-Layer Teen Adventure
There wasn’t a speck of anything for dessert in the house—well, besides some old dark chocolate baking bars. And while I’ve been known to break off a piece to pair with peanut butter in a pinch, I was hungry for the real thing.
A real honest-to-goodness chocolate cake. Yes, that was it. And that’s decadence that doesn’t happen very often around here … even for birthdays or special occasions. Oh, it’s not that I don’t love dessert. I do. It’s just the time-factor, the calorie-factor and the feel-like-it factor.
When meals need made, grocery shopping needs done and one hundred and one other things are on the to-do list, I can’t say I set it all aside and start baking. However, that might not be a bad idea. As I may have mentioned before, I do find working in the kitchen generally relaxing and centering. And what could be better than ending up with something delicious at the end of a session of relaxation?
So what would the therapy be tonight? Chocolate.
Chocolate with peanut butter icing. My favorite.
And so I announced to everyone that as soon as the dinner dishes were done I was baking a cake. And it was only seconds later that teenage son said, “Can we make a real one? … you know, one that takes a lot of work … not from a cake mix?”
“You know, I don’t even have a cake mix in the house. So we can count that option out.”
“That’s good--I’d like to help,” he said.
Music to my ears.
Thus our adventure into creating a beautiful honest-to-goodness, melt-the-real-chocolate cake began.
I had to dig out the 9-inch round pie pans first. It’s testament to how often I make official cakes—you know the double-layer babies with frosting—that my kids hadn’t ever assembled one (or seen me do it either). Oh sure, we saw those beauts sitting in the grocery store bakery section, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing to actually undertake the making of one in your own kitchen, eh?
Back to the cake: first, a standard ‘Best Chocolate Cake’ recipe from my old stand-by cookbook (We tweaked it a bit, upping the chocolate and nixing some sugar—recipe is below). Next, we greased and floured two pans. And even placed parchment paper circles in the bottoms of each to eliminate the dreaded ‘broken bits and missing hunks’ that has happened one-too-many times when I’ve attempted these cakes in the past. We just happened to have a lovely roll of parchment paper (long time since I used that too) and we traced around each pan and placed the round cut-out over the greased and floured pan.
This was already a lot of work and we weren’t even onto mixing the ingredients yet. Needless to say, teens make the measuring and mixing steps easy—so after changing a few of the ingredient measures but following the recipe as an overall guide, we had a fluffy batter to pour into the two pans. Thirty-five minutes later we removed two good-lookin’ chocolate cakes from the oven, set them on a cooling rack (yeah, I had to dig those out too) and let them cool.
We mixed up the peanut butter icing using my son’s favorite all-natural peanut butter (no sugar added) and when the cakes were cool enough—about 30 minutes—we assembled the delicacy.
And yes, it was just as delicious as it looked. So the next time you’re in the mood for chocolate cake, toss the idea out about making a double-layer cake to your teens … they just might take you up on it. And that equals some darn good dessert-eating for the next coupla days.
Made with sugar, baking soda, salt, baking powder, vanilla extract, water, buttermilk, eggs, shortening
Serves/Makes: 8
- 5 ounces dark unsweetened baking chocolate, broken into chunks
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup shortening
***Peanut Butter Frosting***
- 3/4 cup all-natural peanut butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/2 cup milk (more or less as needed)
- optional: dark chocolate, grated for decoration
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans and place a round of parchment paper in the bottom of each. Set aside.
Place chocolate chunks into microwave-safe bowl and heat for one minute. Remove and stir. If not completely melted and creamy, microwave at 30-second intervals, being careful not to burn it. Set aside.
Place all remaining ingredients in order given into the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl once or twice with spatula. Increase speed to high and beat for 3 minutes.
Pour batter into the two prepared pans, dividing evenly. Bake for about 35 minutes, until cakes test done in the middle. Remove from oven and immediately invert pans onto cooking racks for 5 minutes. Carefully remove pans and peel back the parchment paper (watch out for hot steam). Mix frosting while cakes cool.
To mix frosting: Place peanut butter, vanilla and 1 cup of the confectioners' sugar in a mixing bowl. Use electric mixer on low speed to mix together. Add the remaining sugar, alternating with the milk until frosting is creamy and the correct consistency.
When cakes are cool to touch, place one round on a serving plate and spread about 1/4-inch of frosting on top. Place second round on top. Use remaining frosting to completely cover both stacked cakes. For a finishing touch, a bit of grated dark chocolate is a beautiful accent. Allow frosting to set up and harden before covering with plastic wrap (about one hour).
Cook's Notes: We rarely have fresh buttermilk on hand, but I do like to keep the dry cultured buttermilk mix (just add water) on a refrigerator shelf. It adds richness and flavor when baking cakes like this one!
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