About Feast Everyday

Based in Corning, New York and the beautiful Finger Lakes. Started in 2009 by Barbara Blumer with her family and friends. Her husband, Tom, now regularly contributes, too.

Over 900 Recipes and still growing

From muffins to curries with step-by-step photos and how-to tips: see recipe index https://feasteveryday.blogspot.com/p/recipes-index.html

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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Easy Buttermilk Chocolate Cake with Sprinkles by Colleen


Hi Barb--

Okay so I tried something new yesterday. Recipe below. I had known that if you didn't have buttermilk you could "make" your own but had been afraid to try. However, I was EMBOLDENED by my successful substitution of Nutella for jam in the oatmeal bars, so I went ahead.

The cheat is embedded in therecipe. But basically you add vinegar to milk and let sit for 10 minutes or so.

I read a number of reviews on Emeril Lagasse's site and everyone seemed to think it worked fine. The one person who WASN'T happy with the cheat was someone who was actually hoping to drink the concoction as BUTTERMILK. Apparently, one of the 7 people who stills drinks buttermilk in North America. So if you really want your buttermilk as a beverage, this is NOT a good idea. Go to the store, or churn your own as some helpful person on the site explained. Right. And then go find some sheep to shear and spin your own wool.

I have my limits with this whole DIY thing. Anyway, the cake turned out great. Recipe originally from Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes *All recipes triple tested* which means so easy a chimp could do it. Chimps and me.

      ----Colleen

Easy Buttermilk Chocolate Cake


2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (not dutched/no alkali added)
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk*
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Frosting of your choice


Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 9-inch cake pans or 10-inch Bundt.

1. In large bowl combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda salt.

2. In separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla.

3. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

4. Pour into pans and bake about 30 minutes for 9 inch pans or 40  minutes for Bundt.

5. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Run knife around edge of pan to loosen. Then invert on wire rack and remove pan and let cool completely.

6. Make frosting of your choice. I did vanilla butter cream (3 cups powdered sugar, 1 cup soft butter, 2 teaspoons vanilla and 3-4 Tablespoons of whipping cream, beaten together until smooth and spreadable. Add more cream if needed)



I had tastefully scattered sprinkles on the top of the cake. It looked a little underdressed. So then I decided to tart it up like a Vegas Show Girl.

There is a better system for this than cupping handfuls of sprinklings and slapping onto the side of the cake. There are titled cake stands for frosting and applying sprinkles/nuts/etc to the sides with some sort of catch bin below for the many many sprinkles that yearn to run free all over your kitchen.I have none of that gear (where to store?) So I made a giant mess. I finally realized that I could at least capture some of the fall off with a piece of parchment or waxed paper under the cake. And used a pastry brush to clear the strays. Still, messy, but worth it.

I use DeRuijter.


*If you don't have buttermilk, you can make it by pouring about 7 teaspoons of vinegar into bottom of 2 cup measuring cup. Fill to 1 1/2 cup level with regular milk or mixture of milk and cream. I used about 1 cup skim milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream. Let sit 10-15 minutes.
  
              ----Colleen