Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes decided on Dressy Chocolate Loafcake (to be found on her page or on pages 286 and 287 in Dorie Greenspans book ). This was an incredible good pick for me to come back to the baking world, because it was not too difficutl to make, even if it is called "dressy". In fact, the batter itself is very classic and easy. What did frightend me a bit was the cutting thing.
Since the first real TWD-recipe I ever made, the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake, I know I'm not very good at cutting my cake. First, because I am impatient and can't wait until the cake reaches room temperature. But if you don't wai,t you risk the cake to be too soft and fall in pieces. And you can't really fill the cake anyways, because the cream or spread will either be absorbed by the warm, soft cake, or liquify and run over the edges.And secondly, I am not a very good cutter. In fact - cutting is not the real problem, but straight lines are. I am physically incapable of drawing a straight line and don't ask for straight cuts in paper, or wood or cakes. That has already been the abrupt ending of my career-aspirations as an architect. (That, and that I can't count and calculate. Don't ask me what drove me to want to be an architect when I was insschool...)
But back to the Chocolate Loafcake.
Frosting a cake is also not a thing I am an expert in, and this was also only the second time I frosted a cake after the CCC-Cake. Despite some difficulties I somehow managed to cover the whole cake, and topped my mini-test piece with the frosting. I opted for using creamcheese despite of sour cream, and it was an excellent choice!
But I was not very happy with the result, because chocolate cake with chocolate frosting does look boring somehow (boring cake on the left). But I found a way to dress up the dressy cake a bit... (not so boring cake on the right)
