Sunday, March 18, 2007

Addendum to Ina's Latest Chocolate Cake

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

I just have to riff a bit about this cake. After I told you all about it, I ran into the kitchen and whipped it up. (Oh ok, I had to go get some buttermilk, but everything else was at hand.) By the way, you can also find the recipe in Barefoot Contessa At Home. It is indeed a wonderful cake. I didn't do my usual thing of changing this or that. I didn't need to. IT WAS PERFECT.

Even though Ina didn't have time to talk about this on the show, in the recipe she says to butter the cake pan, and then line it with parchment and butter and flour again. I know you may be tempted to skip this step. BUT DON'T. And I'll go a step further, with ANY cake you make for the rest of your life - butter the pan and line it and then butter it and flour it again. It will save your life a hundred times over. Even if you've made some mistake in the mixing or baking time, you will never have part of the cake left behind in the pan again.


Oh, one other thing, our Ina says to use parchment. Why not when you're culinary royalty? But if you just have wax paper around, use that (and you should have it because that's the only covering, besides glass, that should ever go in the microwave. NEVER PLASTIC.) I bought my last pack of parchment 7 years ago and I haven't missed it yet.

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