Chocolate Glazed Yellow Cake

A few weeks back I was testing out some basic yellow cake recipes for my Boston cream pie cupcakes. I found this cake recipe in my recipe folder. It was written on a sheet of binder paper and the origin of the recipe is now long forgotten. But it was for the cake part of Boston cream pie so I thought it would be a nice cupcake base for my BCP cupcakes. Boy was I wrong!

I made one 9-inch round cake and 12 standard (4-ounce capacity well) cupcakes from the batter (instead of two 9-inch rounds). Even though I know I followed the recipe exactly and I filled my muffin wells no more than two-thirds full, the batter swelled to monstrous proportions in the oven and formed one large "uni-muffin" top. I thought the 9-inch cake would fare better, but as the baked cake cooled, the center sank (along with my hopes for a successful baking session).

Well, my husband and I each tried one-twelfth of the "uni-muffin" monster. It smelled and tasted pretty good, but it was such a shame that they were so ugly. I hate to see perfectly good food go to waste, so I gave the remainder of the cupcake creature to my parents (who can totally look past the ugliness of food) and they, in turn, fed them to my niece and nephews (who just like to eat cake). I then sliced the sunken 9-inch cake into wedges and topped it with a quick chocolate glaze. Imagine my surprise when it was a big hit at the office! I guess the moral of the story is there’s nothing a little chocolate can’t fix.

Yellow Cake

3 cups sifted cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup buttermilk, at room temp.

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and then eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

On low speed, beat in the flour alternatively with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape batter into prepared pans.

Bake until cakes are light golden brown and tester comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cakes in the pan on cooling racks.

Quick Chocolate Glaze

6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet or bitterweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 ounces (3 tbsp) butter
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Place chocolate, butter and corn syrup in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat. Stir until chocolate melts and mixture comes together, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Use immediately.