Chocolate Chip Cake

I made this cake for my sister’s birthday celebration over the weekend.
This is the perfect post to show that everyone has a bad baking day sometimes. This was one of those days for me. But don’t be discouraged, the cake still turned out well, despite my off day. I was able to salvage it and still make it both tasty and pretty.

Here’s what happened: It was after 9:00pm. Tommy and I were watching an episode of our show, and all of a sudden, I said “Oh shit!” I was supposed to be baking this cake for the following day, and I knew I wouldn’t have time in the morning to do it all.

So at 9:30pm, I starting baking a cake. I was rushing and tired and, against my better judgment, I greased, but didn’t flour, the cake pans. The cake batter turned out great, cakes were baking great. I didn’t expect any problems… until the cakes had cooled slightly and I attempted to get them out of the pans. They were sticking a lot, and started to break. It was after 11:00 at this point, and my exhaustion wasn’t helping. So I went to bed and decided I’d deal with it in the morning.

So the next morning, I managed to get the cakes out of the pans, but one of them fell apart pretty bad. I decided to place the broken cake on the bottom layer, and I covered it with a bunch of frosting to keep it together. Then I placed this layer in the fridge for about 30 minutes. This allowed the frosting to harden slightly to prevent the cake from falling apart as I placed the second layer on top. I then continued frosting the remainder of the cake as I normally would. Doing all this helped me salvage the cake, ending with a good-looking finished product.

So, after hearing about my almost failed baking experience, here is how to make the cake:
Start by preheating the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two round cake pans.

Then start making the cake batter. Measure out two cups of all-purpose flour. Then remove 1 Tbsp of flour and set it aside. Into your 2 cups (minus 1 Tbsp) of flour, add the baking powder and salt. Set flour mixture aside until ready to use.

In a stand mixer, beat the softened butter and sugar together til they are combined. The mixture will be slightly crumbly instead of smooth.

Add in the oil and vanilla, and beat until the mixture is smooth.

Next, beat in a the eggs, one at a time, until the mixture is combined and fluffy.

Finally, alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the batter. Add small amounts at a time, and mix well between each addition. If you add all the milk at once, it will slosh out when you turn the mixer on. Same with the flour: it will fly everywhere when the mixer turns on. Once all the milk and flour is added, mix til all ingredients are combined.

Add the reserved one tablespoon of flour to the chocolate chips. Toss them around so that all chocolate chips are fully coated with flour. The flour helps to prevent the chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom of the batter.
Fold the chocolate chips into the cake batter.

Divide the cake batter between the two prepared pans. Bake 30-35 minutes, til you can insert a toothpick and have it come out clean.
Remove the pans from the oven, and allow the cakes to cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. Then remove the cakes from the pans and allow them to cool completely before adding frosting. This is where my cakes started to fall apart.

Next, it's time to make the frosting. Beat the softened butter until it's fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, only adding in a little at a time and mixing well between each addition. Once the powdered sugar is all in, increase the speed to high and beat til the frosting is fluffy.

Finally, add in the vanilla and half of the heavy cream. Mix well to combine. Then add in the remaining heavy cream. Continue to mix until all ingredients are fully combined.

Once the cakes are fully cooled, you can begin spreading the frosting. Start by placing the first layer on a cake stand. Add some frosting to the top of the layer. There will be plenty of frosting, so don’t worry about trying to keep the layers thin.
Then add the second layer on top of the first. Continue spreading frosting over the top and sides of the cake, trying to spready it smoothly and evenly.
After the cake is fully coated in frosting, you can decorate however you’d like. I chose to pipe some frosting around the perimeter of both the top and bottom. Then I added chocolate chips on top.