How to Bake a Cake

I embarked upon my culinary adventures with learning how to bake a cake from scratch. While some believe in starting easy, I decided to start with my favorite food: chocolate cake. I was lucky enough to learn under the guidance of my mother, so not only did I skip the mistakes she's made, but also benefited from the little tricks she's picked up. 'But why not just use a ready cake mix?' you may ask. Well, I'm a self appointed connoisseur of cakes, and I've never eaten an out of the box cake that I felt matched up to the real thing. There always just seemed to be something missing. Whether you share my enthusiasm for baking cakes or not, what I would like to say is that the task at hand, albeit time-consuming, is an easy one. Speaking from personal experience, I achieved success with my very first attempt, and I'm sure you will too.

Instructions to Bake a Cake

Ingredients
For the cake:

• 18 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 6 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• ⅓ cup cornstarch
• 8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream, at room temperature
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 whole lemon zest

For the Frosting:

• 24 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
• 4 tbsp (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1½ cups heavy cream
• ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp light corn syrup
• Chocolate candies for decorating

Directions

This is how to bake a vanilla cake. Start by heating the oven to 350° F. Coat the baking pan with a thin layer of butter and then dust it with flour. Alternately, you can also bake a cake in a pyrex bowl. Combine the flour, cornstarch, salt and baking soda, sift them twice and keep aside. In a big mixing bowl, combine the cream, butter and sugar, and blend it on medium-high speed with an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. If you don't have one, an ordinary hand held mixer will do the job too. In about 5 minutes, your mixture should turn light and fluffy. Lower the speed to medium and add in 2 eggs at a time, mixing in between. Following the eggs, go in the sour cream, vanilla and lemon zest. While mixing, ensure you get the bottom and sides of the bowl. Bring down the speed of the mixer to low, and spoon in the flour mixture bit by bit. Do a final mixing by hand to be ensure that the batter is well mixed. Pour it into the pan and lightly bang the pan on the table to get it to settle evenly. Put it into the center of the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Keep checking and when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out sans batter, your cake is ready. Allow the cake to cool to room temperature.

To make the frosting, combine the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a bowl, and place over a pot of boiling water. Stir the cream till the chips melt completely. Turn off the heat and pour in the corn syrup and vanilla. Let the frosting cool to room temperature, and once it does, add the softened butter to it and whisk on medium speed for a few minutes. Pour the frosting on the cake and use a knife to spread it on the sides. Decorate it with chocolate candies.

While this method uses a convection oven, if you want to know how to bake a cake in the microwave, know that the process does not differ greatly. All you need to do is coat your Microwave safe bowl with non stick spray and pour the batter into it. After about 8 minutes on high, your cake should be done. If a toothpick comes out with batter, give it another minute or two. Take it out and let it stand for 15 minutes before you dig in.