Just made my first cake!

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Chile, everyone has to start somewhere. I always used mixes when I first made cakes and they turned out or they didn't. I made a scratch cake today and wished I had had a mix because it was a specialty pan (two half spheres to make a "ball style" cake) and a mix might have been more forgiving.

I would actually suggest chocolate buttercream over ganache as a frosting and save the ganache for fillings. A chocolate buttercream (I can give you an easy recipe) looks nicer and tastes just as fudgy.
 
Chile, everyone has to start somewhere. I always used mixes when I first made cakes and they turned out or they didn't. I made a scratch cake today and wished I had had a mix because it was a specialty pan (two half spheres to make a "ball style" cake) and a mix might have been more forgiving.

I would actually suggest chocolate buttercream over ganache as a frosting and save the ganache for fillings. A chocolate buttercream (I can give you an easy recipe) looks nicer and tastes just as fudgy.
Thank you LPB, that would be very kind of you.

Here's my cake before pictures, it turned out Ok though.

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Your cake looks great!

Here is my personal recipe for Chocolate frosting. I have adapted it from some of my other recipes and it works the best. You can use 1/2 butter, 1/2 crisco but I find for chocolate it is better to use straight butter. Make sure the chocolate is cooled a bit before you add it to the softened butter.

Chocolate Buttercream
1 cup butter not margarine, softened
3 oz unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons milk


Cream butter and melted chocolate with electric mixer. Add vanilla, then gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, scraping bowl often. Add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until frosting is smooth and fluffy.








 
Your cake looks great!

Here is my personal recipe for Chocolate frosting. I have adapted it from some of my other recipes and it works the best. You can use 1/2 butter, 1/2 crisco but I find for chocolate it is better to use straight butter. Make sure the chocolate is cooled a bit before you add it to the softened butter.

Chocolate Buttercream
1 cup butter not margarine, softened
3 oz unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons milk


Cream butter and melted chocolate with electric mixer. Add vanilla, then gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, scraping bowl often. Add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until frosting is smooth and fluffy.








Thank you LPB, I will give your recipe a go when I make my next cake, By the way I forgot grease the bottom and the sides of the glass dish and it broke into pieces when I tired to pull it out of the dish.
 
You can still eat it up! Or mix up a little pudding or jello and mix it with the cake chunks, serve by the scoop with a little whipped cream. :)
 
I agree that packaged cake mixes are a good way to learn the basics of baking before moving on to "from scratch" recipes.
 
Thank you LPB, I will give your recipe a go when I make my next cake, By the way I forgot grease the bottom and the sides of the glass dish and it broke into pieces when I tired to pull it out of the dish.

You will need to first grease, then flour the inside surface of the cake pan to prevent the cake from sticking.;)

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
I should warn you though it's a cake mix you can buy from the store.

Soon I will attempt the whole thing and use gonosh as my chocolate frosting.

Good for you, Derek. We all have to start somewhere. and now you've started!

You'll have better luck finding the recipe for frosting you want though, if you spell it GANACHE.
 
Your cake looks great!

Here is my personal recipe for Chocolate frosting. I have adapted it from some of my other recipes and it works the best. You can use 1/2 butter, 1/2 crisco but I find for chocolate it is better to use straight butter. Make sure the chocolate is cooled a bit before you add it to the softened butter.

Chocolate Buttercream
1 cup butter not margarine, softened
3 oz unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons milk


Cream butter and melted chocolate with electric mixer. Add vanilla, then gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, scraping bowl often. Add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until frosting is smooth and fluffy.









Mmmmmmm, cut and pasted, thanks!
I'll get lots of use out of that one! It will save me tons of time making the real thing. YAY!
 
As an alternative, Crisco and others make a baking spray that includes canola oil and flour. It works very well.

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I have something like that, that I use and like I said I'll use it even on my class ware as well.


By the way guys since the cake is the same size and I have a twin bowl like in the photograph above, How long do I cook both cakes for and how do I have to adjust the temps?
 
Cake made in glass cake pans may take a bit longer to cook than in metal. Generally, to adapt a recipe from a metal dish to a glass dish, you should lower the baking temperature by 25 degrees and allow a bit of extra time in the oven.

Your cake looks to me as if the temperature may have been a bit high -- the heavy browning on the edges and the top make me think that. Too much heat also may account for the uneven top (it's much higher in the middle than on the edges). Check your oven temperature with a good oven thermometer and adjust the setting accordingly.

Time is only approximate when you bake something. Always check it a few minutes before the recipe says. With cakes, I rely first on touch -- poke it gently in the middle with your finger (quickly so you don't get burned) and if it bounces back, it's probably nearly done. Second, look at it -- generally a cake is done when it just begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Third, use a toothpick -- stick it straight down in the middle of the cake and pull it straight out; if it comes out clean, the cake is done; if it has a few crumbs on it, the cake is probably done; if it has wet batter on it, the cake needs more time. Add only 5 minutes, then check it again.
 
Cake made in glass cake pans may take a bit longer to cook than in metal. Generally, to adapt a recipe from a metal dish to a glass dish, you should lower the baking temperature by 25 degrees and allow a bit of extra time in the oven.

Your cake looks to me as if the temperature may have been a bit high do to the heavy browning on the edges. That also may account for the uneven top (it's much higher in the middle than on the edges).

Time is only approximate when you bake something. Always check it a few minutes before the recipe says. With cakes, I rely first on touch -- poke it gently in the middle and if it bounces back, it's probably nearly done. Second, look at it -- generally a cake is done when it just begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Third, use a toothpick -- stick it straight down in the middle of the cake and pull it straight out; if it comes out clean, the cake is done; if it has a few crumbs on it, the cake is probably done; if it has wet batter on it, the cake needs more time. Add only 5 minutes, then check it again.
Thank you Scotch, I've followed the recipe to a t both bake time for each ban was 29-34 minutes and I've cooked it for 30 minutes, The toothpick came out very clean.
 
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