This is the third post in my week long {and much overdue} Super Bowl recipe recap. Thanks to the Steelers making it to the Super Bowl a few years back I had already owned a Steelers table cloth, and made a super simple banner to add some more black and gold to our house. My family and I own terrible towels, and the grocery stores always have the team balloons during Super Bowl. I had to resist not buying a dozen or so balloons… 2 worked.
Last super bowl I made chocolate cupcakes with a yellow-dyed frosting. I did not make them from scratch I used a box and a jar of frosting. I was tempted to make cupcakes again for this Super Bowl, but decided on a cake instead. I was inspired by the amazing Annie’s Eats, once again. I decided to use the chocolate cake recipe from her Tuxedo Cake. I did not follow Annie’s directions… I did not line my pans with parchment paper and butter and flour them… subsequently, I wish I would have. I could not get my cakes out of the pan, and it turned into a big hot mess. Plus, I don’t think I gave it adequate time to cool. I really LOVE this chocolate cake recipe, and think I’d like to tackle this again, but with following each and every step. So, the teachable moment here is to follow directions. I don’t want anyone to have a hot mess of a cake like I did (but a very tasty one).
I used a cream cheese frosting recipe from my Red Velvet cupcakes (take 2). I used a Wilton black gel tube to write “Steelers” on the cake.
Source: Annie’s Eats
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 20-25 minutes
Serves: 10
Ingredients for the Cake:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup canola oil
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tbsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
Directions for the Cake:
1. To make the cake layers, preheat the oven to 350? F. Line three 9-inch round cake pans (or two 10-inch round cake pans) with parchment paper. Butter and flour the inside edges of the pan, shaking out the excess flour.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, water and canola oil; heat until the butter is melted. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cocoa powder, and flour; whisk to blend. Pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then whisk in the buttermilk. Add the baking soda, salt and vanilla to the bowl and whisk just until incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
3. Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each cake layer and invert onto a wire cooling rack. Allow the cake layers to cool completely before frosting, at least 2 hours.
Ingredients for the Frosting:
-
8 oz. cream cheese
-
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted*
Directions for the Frosting:
1. To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar *(Annie calls for 2-½ cups of sugar. I only put in 1 cup and it tasted awesome) until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth. Frost once cake has cooled completely.
Magnolia
This is so yummy. Thank you very much for sharing!
Katie
Thanks so much for the feedback! I'm very much a new baker (that is from scratch), so I'd love to see a cake tutorial! I love cream cheese frosting that's why I went with it! lol. Lessons learned. 🙂
ButterYum
I'm so sorry your cake didn't turn out as well as you hoped it would. Maybe I'll do a cake tutorial on my blog… after so many years of baking and making cakes, I've learned a few good tricks.
Also, in my opinion, cream cheese frosting is too soft to cling properly to the sides of a cake. It kind of slowly slides off when left at room temp.