This weekend was my last Wilton cake class of Course III (we’ll take a little flashback into my cake classes later, but right now we’re talking about good cake recipes).  The lesson was to create a two-tiered cake, and I used a light chocolate frosting (light in color, certainly not in fat) with fondant roses.  The bottom layer was chocolate cake and the top layer was almond cake.  Due to our busy week and my cold, it’s not the best looking one I’ve done, however, the recipes for the actual cakes were the best I’ve made yet.  They’re nothing extraordinarily special –  just good plain cake, so I thought I would share.

But first, here’s a picture of the finished work.

And a close-up of the flowers

First, the chocolate cake (find the almond cake recipe here).  This cake was super easy to make because it just required one bowl and simple ingredients.  After it was baked, however, was a completely different story because it was so moist and sticky that it was a pain to try to move and frost.  As soon as we cut into it, though, the extra pain was totally worth it.  Well, that’s enough talk, you just want the recipe…

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 10 to 12 servings.

Source: Hershey’s Kitchens