Notes about Recipes in this book

• Velvet devil's food layer cake with coffee buttercream frosting (Master recipe)

  • ashallen on September 04, 2019

    The cake in this recipe is very good - solid chocolate flavor and a nice tender texture. Flavor's dominated by whichever cocoa powder you use so it helps to use a good one. But what's really excellent about this recipe is the coffee buttercream frosting - easy to make, great flavor, no sense of greasiness, and works great with this particular cake (and other cakes). It's not as perfectly smooth as a classic French buttercream, but given how easy and delicious it is, I'm definitely not going to complain! [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine.]

• Classic devil's food layer cake with whipped cream

  • ashallen on October 13, 2019

    This is a good chocolate cake - tender, moist, and good chocolate flavor. I've tried it with a few different types of flour and so far like it best when made with a strong flour like King Arthur all-purpose - it's turned out somewhat soft and crumbly with softer flours (or maybe I'm not stirring my batter vigorously enough!). Recipe calls for natural cocoa powder but it's turned out well with alkalized/dutch-process cocoa, too. [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine.]

• German chocolate-style layer cake with coconut-pecan filling

  • ashallen on August 30, 2019

    Good flavor for a German chocolate cake. Layers didn't rise enough to slice in half as specified in the recipe - probably user error! The final cake worked fine with the thicker layers, in part because the coconut pecan frosting is delicious!! [Cross post for Annual Edition/Magazine.]