Your baking powder could have been old, you could have over beaten it, your oven could have n ot been preheated or the temperature off...
Don't sweat it....I'll bet it's gone by tomorrow...
And you can try again!

Ah ha! Thanks, Linda. It could have been any one except the preheated oven. I've been reading the recent threads on newer ovens beeping when they're at the selected temperature when they're not really quite there yet. So, my oven actually preheated for probably longer than 30 minutes by the time I got the cake in!

I really should get a thermometer for it to check accuracy, though.

I honestly suspect I overbeat it. That's okay. The kid is delighted with the cake and is eager to dig in!

Thanks

Mandie

I'm also betting on the baking powder.... did you see the recent thread about proofing it?

When you say it is flat, do you mean it didn't rise? When you said this, I thought about my chocolate cake, which rises a lot, but doesn't have the rounded top you get on box mixes. The taste is wonderful though, & is great for decorating. If you decide to try a different recipe sometime for chocolate cake, I highly recommend the one for Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake.
As far as level, your stove should have some way of leveling, feet that can be adjusted.

Since you mention a new KA mixer and a heavy hand with the speed, OVER-mixing can also be the reason for the "flat" cake.

Once you are adding your dry ingredients, only mix until the dry ingredients are well incorporated into the wet ingredients. You gain nothing by using a high mixing speed since you aren't trying to incorporate air at this time.

If there are also tunnels throughout the crumb, that is another indication you over-mixed the batter. Because you over-develop the gluten when you mix the batter too long, the leavening gases have to work hard to drill their way through the long gluten strands of a tough batter. When this happens, they leave narrow holes that run from the bottom to the top - which is a hallmark of over-mixing.

I only use a mixer for creaming fat and sugar. After that, I use a Danish Dough Whisk for incorporating the dry ingredients by hand into any cakes or quick breads to avoid over-mixing and over-development of the gluten in the flour.

In my experience as a foods judge at fairs, stand mixers and the tendency to over-mix cakes and quick breads is the #1 reason for a less-than-perfect food item.

You should also make sure you have room-temperature eggs. Cold eggs can decrease cake volume.

As an off chance it is your baking powder, you may want to test it for potency...

Place 1/2 t. of baking powder in a small bowl then pour 1/4 c. of hot tap water over it. The more bubbling activity there is the fresher the baking powder.

-Grainlady

If your cake pans were touching each other in the oven while baking, this could cause the cake to rise higher on the sides that were touching.

Wow, such terrific information! Thanks.

So, the cake itself tasted rather flat as well, but the frosting was terrific! The cake was also rather dry.

I suspect that the 3 issues in this case were:
1. Way overbeating. I will not make that mistake again!
2. Old baking powder. It's been up there for quite a while, and I can't remember when I bought it. It's entirely possible it's too old. I'll buy a new box today and put the old one in the fridge for a while.
3. I had taken the eggs out a bit ahead of time, but they were still quite cool.

Question on the beating - there is a comment in the KA instructions to beat things for half the time called for in a recipe because the KA is so powerful. Is that accurate or hype?

Lastly, it's didn't have the deep chocolatey flavor I craved. I think I'll try the Hershey's recipe and see if I can do any better.

Thanks everyone!

Mandie

I cream my butter and sugar for a long time, but combine the dry ingredients very quickly. I like ground chocolate more than cocoa for cakes and brownies.

Mandie, you mention putting your baking powder in the fridge because it's old..I didn't know that Baking Powder does the same as Baking Soda in "freshening" things...and Baking Powder doesn't usually come in a box...are you using baking soda instead of powder??

I like to put my eggs in a bowl of hot water while I get other things together to "warm" them.

I don't follow any time instructions on beating in my KA..I just do it till it's incorporated and looks right. I'm sure it is less time.

And the chocolate cake recipe that I use is from Hershey's an I love it..moist..delicious and takes quite well to flavor adjustments.
I've been using this recipe for YEARS..I often use coffee in place of the water. I always use butter instead of oil.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

This is hands down my favorite chocolate cake ever. I make it all the time for my kids. It stays fresh in the fridge about a week. The frosting is awesome!

Here is a link that might be useful: Deep dark chocolate cake

LOL No, I didn't confuse the baking powder and baking soda while baking. I did, however, confuse them while typing!

My baking powder is actually a new can, just purchased and opened last week.

My baking SODA, however, is old. I'll be putting the baking soda in the fridge, but NOT the baking powder :-)

I'm going to try your chocolate cake recipe in another week or two. In the meantime, son has asked for my "fudge ecstacy" cookies, which were a huge hit when I made them for the first day of school. Easy, fast, so much chocolatey goodness in those!

One of the best things I've learned through this experience is that a disaster, no matter how spectacular or minor, does not make me a bad cook/baker. It's how I learn and move on. I think my son felt badly for me that he didn't like the cake. I told him it was no biggie - I didn't like it either! I'll just keep trying.

Thanks, everyone!

Mandie

Mandie, I also use that Hershey's chocolate cake that tracy posted.

I made a different recipe this weekend, and was disappointed, it wasn't nearly as good. I'm going back to the "tried and true" Hershey's chocolate cake.

Mine wasn't flat, but it was just dry and crumbly, so at least I have company in the cake baking department this weekend!

Annie

I've made the one that Terri posted, and I can vouch for how delicious, chocolatey, and moist it is. I baked it for an Easter dinner we were invited to last year. There wasn't going to be any other dessert except for my contribution, and I'd never used that recipe before, so that was a little risky. It was fabulous, and it's now my go-to chocolate cake.

It also looks very cute with green coconut grass and pastel eggs on top of it. ;o)

You also mentioned that your cake layers turned out lop sided. Another thing to consider is.....how level is your oven? Get hubby to check with a leveling tool, you know, the kind that has a liquid indicator with a floating bubble. That bubble should be directly in the center.

I had that problem, and when DH checked for me we found that the kitchen range was not level. Most kitchen ranges have adjustable feet for up-or-down adjustments.

For what it's worth; I like to sift all my dry ingredients together about three times to make sure of even distribution. Also like to seperate whites from yolks to beat whites, then gently fold aeriated whites into batter. Any sort of vibration of the kitchen floor or oven while baking will flatten your cake, too.

Looking at the recipes...Hershey's has the same cake listed under two different names..LOL

I love chocolate cake and have been making the same one for years. I found the recipe on King Arthur flour website. It uses cocoa powder and always comes out very moist. I do add a small amount of espresso powder and I use buttermilk instead of the water. But since I seem to be in a rut, I will try the Hershey's cake. Sounds like it is a good one. I don't think you can have too many chocolate cake recipes!
Kat

Here is a link that might be useful: Devils Food Cake

I also use the Hershey's recipe and it's very nice. Though I tried making cupcakes with it and they were really flat, I thought they should have been a little more domed on the top.

Calory, thanks for saying that about the cake pans touching making them rise higher on the sides that touch. I *always* have a problem with that, and have never even thought that touching cake pans could be the reason. Mine always touch! I will stagger them next time and see if I get a different result.

Mandie, let us know how your next endeavor goes and enjoy that mixer!

My chocolate cake quest is on hold for a bit.

I've been going through the 40 pounds of apples DH and the kids brought home. I've made and frozen several batches of applesauce. DH and the kids dehydrated yet another batch. I made and froze 3 pie crusts yesterday, pulled one out today and made a Dutch apple pie. My neighbor brought me half of a Greg Ogden-sized zucchini yesterday. DH shredded it for me, and I've just finished my fourth loaf of chocolate zucchini bread. I still have a ton more zucchini left :-( This is NOT a squash-loving house. I'm going to pull the remaining pie crusts tomorrow and roll them out, fill them with, what else - apples, and freeze that pie. I'll probably do another one on Thursday.

I need to find time to clean my kitchen!

Oh - on a bright note: My oven is level. I checked that tonight. I likely did a very poor job of leveling the cake batter.

Mandie