Sometimes a family celebration just calls for chocolate,
and my chocolate cake for a crowd,
well, think of those family get-togethers
like an anniversary, a graduation, a retirement party,
everybody wants a slice of cake.
Now, this makes a four-layer rectangular cake,
and I'm gonna start with the batter.
And for a cake that feeds such a crowd,
it's amazing that you actually make the cake batter by hand.
I'll start by sifting my flour and sugar together.
I have 3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour.
This does make a large cake.
I have a big bowl and a smaller sifter.
So I'm gonna sift some of the flour in first,
and then add the rest.
And I'll pour in my four cups of granulated sugar,
sift at the same time.
And I'm gonna hold off, that way I can add
my four teaspoons of baking soda,
two teaspoons of baking powder, and teaspoon of salt.
And then as I pour in the remaining sugar,
it pushes those leavening agents in,
blending them in so nicely, there we go.
It's not much (laughing)
of a chocolate cake without the cocoa powder, 1 1/2 cups.
Now, I prefer using Dutch process in this recipe.
It's not that Dutch process cocoa powder is better
than conventional cocoa powder.
It goes through a treatment
that removes some of the acidity,
which intensifies the color and the flavor,
but you can make this recipe using regular cocoa powder
if that's all you have.
Let that settle in.
And now, all I have to do is add the liquids
right to this bowl.
I'll start with my two cups of hot coffee.
This helps to dissolve the sugar a little bit.
I also add two cups of buttermilk,
a full cup of oil.
Now, remember, this is a cake for a crowd.
This is enough to make two full baking trays.
I'll crack in my four eggs.
And last, two teaspoons of vanilla.
And you just whisk this by hand,
first slowly to blend everything together.
The reason I don't use a stand mixer for this batter,
the scale is simply too big
unless you have a very large mixer.
Sometimes making a dessert For a crowd can be intimidating,
but when you see that all it takes is a single bowl
and a whisk to make cake to feed upwards of 48 people,
well, you're all set.
(whisk banging)
All right, nice and smooth.
Now, these are 11 X 17 inch pans.
And in the baking industry, they're called half sheet pans.
So instead of making a two-layer, half sheet cake,
and I'll be honest,
I do not have room in my fridge for that,
I'm going to make a four-layer cake that is half this size.
And what I like about this fluid batter is
I can pour it into the pan as opposed to having to spread
a thicker batter, worrying about it being level.
All right, and see,
the cake batter itself fills in all the gaps.
So this is ready for the oven, which I've preheated to 350,
and these cakes take about 30 minutes.
And you can check the doneness
just like a regular layer cake
by inserting a skewer in the center.
When it comes out clean, you know you're done.
In thinking about how to make this chocolate cake
interesting and a real crowd pleaser,
I want to create a filling and a frosting
that are each a little different.
So I'm going to use a cream cheese frosting
for building the layers of my cake as I assemble it.
And I'm going to make a Swiss buttercream
for the outside of the cake.
So I'm gonna whip that up while my cakes bake
because I want to chill this frosting before I use it.
I've got a cup of unsalted butter,
1 1/2 cups of cream cheese.
(mixer whirring)
And I've measured out four cups of icing sugar.
I'll add 1/2 right now, mix it,
and then add the remaining two cups.
And when you add the rest of your icing sugar,
just pour in about a teaspoon and a 1/2 of vanilla.
(upbeat music)
All right, so I'll give this cream cheese filling
a chance to set, let my cakes cool,
and then it'll be time to assemble this cake for a crowd.
Here is one of the cake layers.
You can see how level it is.
It just makes it so much easier to assemble.
So I'll set this behind me, I've got my other one here.
Now, it's time to make the Swiss buttercream.
I have 1 2/3 cups of sugar here,
and I'm gonna pour in six egg whites.
And to heat up your egg whites and sugar,
essentially pasteurizing the egg whites,
you wanna place it over a pot
of very gently simmering water.
You don't need electric beaters here.
You're not whipping it into a meringue at this point,
you're just heating up your egg whites,
and melting your sugar.
All right, here we are at 150.
And I can still hold the sides of the bowl.
And I'll pour this into my mixer.
And now, we make meringue.
So I'm gonna whip this on high speed.
You can't over-whip this meringue
because of the quantity of sugar.
(mixer whirring)
Ah, I love the volume you get from a Swiss meringue.
Look at that.
Now, you wanna make sure your meringue is
at room temperature before you start adding your butter.
Don't wanna melt the butter.
My 1 2/3 cup of unsalted butter is
cut into pieces and softened.
So now, with the mixer on high,
I add the butter a little at a time, let it mix in.
And you should watch actually,
the meringue deflate a little bit.
It can take a bit of time.
And when it comes to adding the butter,
again, you can't overwork it.
So just keep going, keep going, keep going.
And you'll watch, whoop,
that Swiss buttercream come together.
You can see right now,
I have a mixture that looks
like half meringue, half buttercream.
It means it's not quite there yet.
The meringue actually has to deflate a little bit more.
(mixer whirring)
Ah, and there it is.
It's satiny, it's shiny, but it has structure.
That is a gorgeous Swiss buttercream.
All right, it's time to assemble this giant cake.
And I like to cut it with the parchment still on the cake.
That way it's easier to move around
and peel away in smaller portions.
So I'm just going to measure, so I know what is halfway.
All right, now that I've got my first layer on,
I will spread it with cream cheese,
a sheer layer of jam, top with the second layer,
and then repeat with my second sheet cake.
Now, I thought I'd put strawberry jam
in between my layers here with the cream cheese.
But of course, this is a family celebration cake.
You know what kind of jam your family likes, it's up to you.
All right, that is definitely a cake for a crowd.
Now, it's time to put the Swiss buttercream
on the outside to encase everything.
Now, I haven't added my flavoring yet,
and you've got options here.
Again, you can tailor this,
but you always want to add a couple of teaspoons of vanilla.
I'm gonna spread the Swiss buttercream on the top.
I wanna get good coverage on the top,
but I just need a sheer layer on the sides.
I'll chill the cake and then do some decorating in a bit.
All right.
So a chilled cake is definitely easier to decorate.
And you can get creative when it comes to piping.
Of course, you could use a star tip,
pipe along the bottom, or put crumbs on the side.
You could do the roses if you want.
But I'd like to be a little different.
You wanna show your family that you made this cake yourself.
Oh, what I love about a cake like this is,
not only are you going to impress your guests
or guests of honor,
you've impressed yourself with what you've made.
You definitely have a cake for a crowd.