(smooth uptempo melodic jazz music)
- Brenda, what are you doing?
- (laughs maniacally) Oh my god!
- You keep ruining everything!
Hey guys, I'm Von.
I'm a Tasty producer here in New York.
(whispering) It is so cold!
I love chocolate cake.
I'm on my way to the store right now
to buy a chocolate cake
and some boxed cake mix,
and I'm going to see if I can make
a homemade version that rivals it.
I'm going to have a taste test
with some people in the office,
and I guess they'll be the judge.
Let's get chocolatey.
You know, there's nothing inherently wrong with boxed cake.
It's great if you're in a pinch,
and it's a lovely starting off point for your cakes.
For the purposes of my taste test,
I'm going to follow the instructions
exactly as they are on the package.
However, there are a lot of really, really
great ways to elevate a boxed cake.
My mama is a fantastic baker,
and my dad, for some reason, loves boxed yellow cake.
So, growing up, she taught me to replace the water with milk
and the oil with butter,
and that higher fat content
really helps the texture of the cake,
because boxed cake can be a little bit dry.
(smooth uptempo melodic jazz music)
There's a lot of ways to really elevate your
boxed cake so that it tastes homemade.
It does dome up quite a bit when you bake it,
so I'm going to just cut that off
because I really want all the cakes to look pretty similar
for my cake tasting.
I'm using canned frosting for that ultimate
store-bought experience,
but another way to make boxed cake taste even better
is with homemade buttercream,
which is like the easiest thing in the world to make.
In my humble opinion,
the best way to make any cake look really nice
is fresh fruit on top.
Go from zero to hero in no time flat.
Not bad boxed cake.
It's like putting lipstick on a pig.
Our culinary team at Tasty,
led by my wonderful friend, Claire,
worked really hard on developing this amazing recipe
for the ultimate chocolate cake.
Um, this is kind of embarrassing,
but I actually cried the first time I tasted it.
I wish I was kidding.
The star of this cake is obviously the chocolate,
but there are some really important supporting roles
that help that chocolate shine.
The stout and the espresso powder
add so much depth to this cake.
It really gives it such a boost
that's going to make you go like, "Wow,
"what is in this cake?"
Creaming the butter and sugar
is a super important process in any cake
that you're going to make
because when you cream together butter and sugar,
you're adding air into the butter
and then the sugar's holding onto that air
and then that's going to give our cake
a really nice structure.
Now, I didn't do this for the boxed cake
because it's boxed cake,
but I really like to crack my eggs into a separate bowl,
just in case you get a bad egg
and adding them one at a time is important
so that everything gets nice and incorporated.
Okay, don't freak out,
but we're going to add some mayonnaise.
We're only using half a cup.
You're not going to taste it,
and it's going to create
the most sinfully, moist cake you've ever had.
I apologize for my casual use of the phrase,
"sinfully moist."
We're going to switch off
adding the dry and the wet ingredients in stages
because mainly, you just don't want to get
all the (bleep) all over your kitchen.
Wow, that looks so good.
We're also going to add chocolate chunks to the cake.
This is just another little element of surprise.
When people bite into it,
they're going to get that fudgy, fudgy cake.
They're going to get the nice, light buttercream,
and then they're going to have that snap
from the chocolate.
So we're going to make sure everything is evenly distributed
and it's time to bake.
(smooth uptempo melodic jazz music)
As you can see, they kind of start to dome,
but then flatten out as they bake.
And then you'll know they're done
when a toothpick comes out clean.
Super smooth.
Almost like, dare I say, Buttah.
In the past few weeks,
I've consumed more buttercream
than any human being should ever consume ever,
but that is because this frosting is so
light, fluffy, and delicious.
The best thing about it is that
it's not overly sweet and it compliments the cake very well.
It's also really smooth, which makes it amazing for
decorating which is everybody's favorite part.
Well, you know, besides the whole eating thing.
Now it's time to have some fun.
I mean, this is the part
where you can get as creative as you want,
you can take it as simplistic as you want.
Just make sure to put enough buttercream
in between all those layers,
that when you cut it,
you got some really nice distinction.
I really want to wow people at this cake tasting,
so I'm using a dough scraper to smooth out the sides.
I'm adding a ganache drip
down the sides of the cake,
and then I'm going to pipe
a little bit of a border at the bottom
and add the fruit on top.
And I guess no cake is complete without
the world's largest strawberry.
I think it looks pretty good,
and I think we're ready to go up against
a store-bought cake and a boxed cake.
Here we go!
(distant chatter) (uptempo melodic jazz music)
- Whoa!
- I would eat this entire cake.
- Why would I waste my time on any other cake?
- That's the one. - That's so good!
- The first one, the first one is totally--
- One is my favorite. - Yay!
- It is just the best chocolate cake I've ever had.
- Yes!
- Okay guys, we have our three cakes here,
now let's boogie.
Though the homemade cake took a little bit longer to make,
it definitely was the best experience of all three.
You taste the texture,
far outweighed that of the boxed cake
and the store-bought cake.
You cannot get a better,
more moist, dare I say, cake.
When we're talking about chocolate cake,
you gotta use the word moist.
There's nothing else.
The world needs cake.
It would just solve all of our problems.
I'm going to the gym now.
Thank you.
Good night.