Continuing My Quest For A Moist Cake....

I have exactly a month until Charlotte's 5th birthday. That means I have a month to figure out how to bake a moist cake from scratch. I've tried many, many times. Waiting until the day of the birthday... baking.... decorating.... taking that first bite and my heart sinking as I realize it's as dry as dust. Good thing the decorating job is usually pretty cute. It helps to distract the party goers from the fact that they're eating vanilla flavored saw dust.

So, this time, I'm starting early and baking some test cakes. I think most of my dry cake problems are from my over-baking the cakes. I've read many articles online about how to bake a moist cake and avoiding over-baking is the main point of all of them. Also, wrapping the cake with plastic wrap as soon as it comes out of the pan is something I'll try also.

So, for Test Cake #1, I'm choosing the Chocolate, Vanilla, Chocolate, Vanilla Cake from the King Arthur's Banter site. I chose this cake because it has sour cream in the vanilla layer. I have baked a pound cake with sour cream and it was very moist. I'm going to use my buttercream recipe for the icing though instead of the ganache.

I'll be sure to take pictures and give you an update after I bake it today or tomorrow.