# How to Choose the best cake recipe for a 2 tier cake, 2 seperate cakes seperately covered in fondant



## lukfam (Oct 22, 2012)

I am making a cake for my grandson's birthday.  How do I choose the best cake for this purpose.  One layer will be 10" and one 8".  My intention is to make 2 or 3 layers in each cake.  I have ordered Satin Ice fondant to cover the cakes. 

Thanks,

Karen


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## strawberrylover (Oct 9, 2012)

I am not sure if I can recommend in time for you to make a birthday cake for your grandson depending when is his birthday, but I certainly can recommend you good recipes for chocolate cake and good suggestions. I am good at making chocolate cake and certainly can recommend you few good chocolate cake recipes and some tips on how to make a good chocolate cake.


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

What flavour are you looking for Karen ? 

@ strawberrylover : we would love for you to share your chocolate cake recipe and suggestions ! 

We all come here to learn , look forward to hearing from you.


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## lukfam (Oct 22, 2012)

I haven't decided yet.  I was thinking of doing alternating layers of white and chocolate cake.  I have been looking at the recipes posted by Gretchen Price from Woodland Bakery and I like quite a few.


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## strawberrylover (Oct 9, 2012)

The recipe is here, but I modify it to the best or closest to the best

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_chocolate_cake_31070

,Original recipe calls for 350 grams sugar, I lower it to 250 grams sugar and change it to muscovado sugar, 2 tablespoons coffee is my second alteration, Also the chocolate for the icing I increase it to 50% more chocolate so the icing will be firmer and not easy to melt. I tried 1:1 for icing and decide it is better to get have 50% more chocolate in it. I also modified this recipe to single layer cake, no icing in the middle, the main key to make it nice to eat is sugar and also the coffee, too little coffee and you can't taste the difference, 2 tablespoon is about right, many people use 2 teaspoon for this recipe, I use 2 tablespoon. the ingredients you see here is for 1 portion, Double portion is about right, double everything here except the icing, the icing should be enough even if the cake is twice as big as it has no layer in the middle.

Tips for making a better chocolate cake

1. Always use muscovado sugar, it gives it such a special caramel taste and is healthier and lower glycemic index too.

2. Always add coffee powder, preferably fresh coffee powder, but instant coffee powder will do

3. Use wholemilk and never low fat milk when you make cake, wholemilk is healthier than low fatmilk and taste better than lowfat milk, there are a lot of articles on the internet to find why wholemilk is healthier and less fattening than low fat milk on the internet.

4. Use the freshiest egg possibly, omega eggs is even better.

5. Use dark chocolate for icing or perhaps use hershey or van houten baking chocolate.

Also this recipe makes too little egg, best is double everything in this recipe, icing does not need to double if you do single layer icing. I prefer single layer icing, easier to make and cheaper, I calculated the cost, the most expensive part to make a chocolate cake is from the icing and not the cake, from the country i am from, ingredients for the icing is the most expensive.

Once you done all this, I can almost assure you the cake will be one of the best ever if not the best.

Here is my modification for the ingredients


225g/8oz plain flour

250g/8.82 oz muscovado sugar

85g/3oz cocoa powder

1½ tsp baking powder

1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 free-range eggs

250ml/9fl oz milk

125ml/4½fl oz vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

250ml/9fl oz boiling water
2 Tablespoon coffee powder/ 2 Tablespoons instant coffee
For the chocolate icing


150g/5.30 oz plain chocolate

100ml/3.5fl oz double cream
I only changed the ingredients of the cake, instruction how to make it is at the website.

What is muscovado sugar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscovado

It is unrefined sugar, not brown sugar mind you, but I guess brown sugar would be closer than white sugar but that is still not Muscovado, most brown sugar is white sugar added back the mollases, muscovado use some process where the moisture is evaporated and leaves what is behind and a good brand is billington muscovado sugar, they have the brown one and dark brown one, I can't tell exactly which is better because at one time I was using unbleached flour and another time I was using bleached flour and different recipe, but for unbleached flour I recommend gold medal as some other brands, if you use their bleached flour, the chocolate you put inside and other ingredients would coagulate and be concentrated in certain parts of the cake.


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## flipflopgirl (Jun 27, 2012)

lukfam said:


> I am making a cake for my grandson's birthday. How do I choose the best cake for this purpose. One layer will be 10" and one 8". My intention is to make 2 or 3 layers in each cake. I have ordered Satin Ice fondant to cover the cakes.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Karen


I have always been a big fan of those who bake homemade bday cakes for the children.

This simple gesture is a memory made and cherished throughout the child's life.

What are the qualities you are seeking?

One choice for a good sturdy layer that is easy to flip to a cooling rack as well as trim and tort is a cream cheese based pound cake.

Not inexpensive to make but reliable if you have a good one with simple to follow instructions.

Also quite easy to alter to chocolate by substituting some good dutched cocoa for some of the flour.

mimi


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

Have you ever tried a Genoise ? 

This recipe makes 2 Genoise sponges, 7 inch and a 10 inch. Preheat oven 350.
Line pans with parchment paper, then grease paper. Dust with flour , shake off excess.

2 1/3 cups of plain flour
8 eggs
7 oz of sugar
3 1/2 oz unsalted butter, melted and cooled. 


A thought.


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## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

@petalsandcoco how long do you bake your genoise? that would be my vote @lukfam


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## lukfam (Oct 22, 2012)

Thanks for all your suggestions.  I made two of the recipes from Woodland Bakery, one chocolate and one vanilla butter cake.  They are baked and cooling in my fridge.  Tomorrow I will attempt to split them into layers.  I hope it goes well.  I ordered Satin Ice Fondant to cover the cakes.  Can anyone tell me how I "glue" the 8" cake to the 10" cake.  Should I use buttercream or perhaps chocolate coating?  Also, from what I've read, once the cakes are covered in fondant they should NOT be stored in the fridge.  Is that correct?

Thanks,

Karen


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## flipflopgirl (Jun 27, 2012)

lukfam said:


> Thanks for all your suggestions. I made two of the recipes from Woodland Bakery, one chocolate and one vanilla butter cake. They are baked and cooling in my fridge. Tomorrow I will attempt to split them into layers. I hope it goes well. I ordered Satin Ice Fondant to cover the cakes. Can anyone tell me how I "glue" the 8" cake to the 10" cake. Should I use buttercream or perhaps chocolate coating? E Also, from what I've read, once the cakes are covered in fondant they should NOT be stored in the fridge. Is that correct?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Karen


I began this post with intention of explaining the whole tort and fill and reassemble cake steps but before boring you and likely everyone else will assume you have never done this and instead refer you to

[thread="77828"][/thread]

I realize you are making a bday not wedding cake but it all boils down to torting and filling and assembling in a fashion that will be stabled once it is stacked.
The above is a link to a thread that contains several more links for just this purpose.

mimi


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## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

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kaneohegirlinaz


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Apr 26, 2014








RIGHT ON @flipflopgirl

great job with the embedding of the wedding cake, that does the trick!

and Karen, you may want to take a look at The Cake Bible as well (see the right side bar of this page, I've tagged a few items that may interest you)


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

kaneohegirlinaz said:


> @petalsandcoco
> how long do you bake your genoise? that would be my vote @lukfam


350f for 25 minutes.

It's an easy recipe.


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## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

I'm going to give that a try petals, I still haven't made the Italian Buttercream yet,

those dozen egg whites are still in the deep freeze, maybe later this week, we'll see...


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

@ luck farm : you can use straws or thin plastic dowel pins. 

Gretchen is a hoot, glad you like her videos . 

As for flavours , that's up to you . 

If you are putting a crumb coat , that would be a good idea. 
Then spread a thin coat of buttercream to even off your top and sides, making sure there are no air pockets. If you get an air pocket after the fact , simply take a pin, insert it gently in the air pocket then smooth out the fondant again. 
When rolling out your fondant , use icing sugar or corn starch to stop it from sticking to your work area. 

As for the issue of cakes enrobed in fondant and refrigeration , it is not recommended because of the issues of condensation . Cakes do well in a cool area. 
Then there are some that do it without having any issues. 

Karen, if you look at Gretchen's videos , she covers some of these points , depending the cake.


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