the art of cake making

i love baking cakes. there's something great about it, greater than eating it. (although i like eating cake, too). it seems weird that all these random ingredients could come together to make something so tasty. i don't like using mixes, though. there's some weird preservative-ish taste to them. whenever i make chocolate cake, i use the recipe on the back of the cocoa can. it is as follows.

2 cups of sugar
1 and 3/4 cups of flour
3/4 cup of cocoa
1 and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt

so now you mix all of those together, but you can't mix them tooooo much, or else the cake won't turn out as good (i don't know why this is true, but it is).

2 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

then you mix all these into it.
finally,
1 cup of boiling water

you have to be really careful when you pour in the boiling water, because the mixer will slosh it out if you're not careful, and you may suffer uncomfortable burns. your oven should be at 350 degrees. in my oven, it takes about 31 minutes for it to get done. the can says to wait ten minutes before you take the cakes out to cool, but i've found that twenty minutes is more accurate, and ensures that the cake comes out in one piece. you should wait about an hour for the cake to cool completely before you frost it, because if you frost while it's still hot, the frosting will become runny and gross.

okay, now it's frosting time. woo!

1 stick of butter (it needs to be really soft, so you should leave it out while you put the cake together. if it's not soft by then, microwave for about thirty seconds)
2/3 cup of cocoa

this is where the can doesn't give you enough information. you have to beat the cocoa and butter together until it's really smooth before you add other ingredients, or else the frosting will be weird and chunky and not attractive.

3 cups of powdered sugar
1/3 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla (it's really important not to forget this)

you add these to your smooth mixture, and then you have lovely chocolate frosting.

mmcake.