I'm a HUGE fan of chocolate. I love chocolate just about any way I can get it. Proof in the pudding? I recently bought some chocolate scented soap! It's kinda gross b/c it turns my wash cloth muddy brown but it smells delicious! Why am I going on and on about chocolate? Because a friend of my brother's recently hired me to make her birthday cake. The only request was that it included chocolate somehow. So what's a kitschy baker to do? I made a devil's food cake with chocolate ganache. How do you make a chocolate cake even better? You add a bit of mayo to make sure it stays moist. I also got to use a new tip I read about slicing cake layers. So this kitchen session was fun all around!

Once I had my wet mix and dry mix in separate bowls it was time to put it all together. I alternatively added the dry ingredients and the buttermilk in 3 separate batches.




A few weeks ago I was reading through some of my favorite baking blogs so see if anything sparked my interest. While I didn't find a recipe I wanted to try out I did get a neat new trick for cutting layers into cakes. Embroidery hoops!  I have tried cutting layers both free hand AND with one of those special layering tools you can buy. This trick by far gave me the most level layers and it was super simple! You just buy a hoop about the size of the cake pan you're using, set the cake in the middle, align your serrated knife along the top edge of the hoop and saw away! Tah-dah! So incredibly easy!