I’m trying to bake my way through RHC and so far the results have been really good! I especially love the carrot cake as well as the yellow cupcakes.

I tried making the deep chocolate passion cake (the one with the unbeaten egg whites) today. The book claims that the sides should reach the top of the pan but my cake layer was very very low (approximately one inch).

When whipping up the batter, I had some problems with the instructions. Do you continue using the whisk beater for the entire batter making process i.e. after incorporating the yolk/oil mixture into the chocolate mixture or do you switch to a beater blade after that step? (I switched to a beater blade)

Can anyone who’ve tried making it share some experience?

Definitely keep using the whisk.  I don’t believe Rose gives instructions to do otherwise.  I’ve made the German Chocolate Base cake several times and always had it turn out…I used the whisk for the entire process.  I have some pics of a wedding cake I did at:

http://forheavenlycakessake.blogspot.com/2009/11/making-of-wedding-cake.html#more

I used the German Chocolate Cake base for the stacked cake.

You’re right - she doesn’t give instructions to change beaters. I’ll try it again tomorrow and report back. Thank you!

I used the whisk all the way, but next time I will try the beater blade all the way! Or my BOSCH blender when making the cupcakes!!!

If the baked height is twice or more than the batter height, then it is a success.  I believe triple is the ideal.

Hi Randomness - So far, this is my favorite cake from Rose’s new book.  I used the whip attachment for the entire batter production (http://butteryum.blogspot.com/2009/10/wedding-cake-for-my-baby-sister.html).  Since then I’ve gotten the BeaterBlade attachment, and it’s worked wonderfully for me every time I’ve used it, so I’ll definitely give it a spin next time.

Just to clarify your problem - your cake layer baked to only an inch tall?  Or was that how far the batter filled the cake pan before baking?

Hi everyone, thank you for your input.

Patrincia: The batter baked to only an inch tall. I’ve tried making the cake today using the whisk attachment for the entire batter production. Batter #1 (the one using the beater blade) was a lot thinner than batter #2 (the one using the whisk attachment). Batter #1 was so thin it’s almost impossible to measure the height of the batter before baking. Batter #2 was a lot thicker (only when you compare it with batter #1; by itself, it is thin). I did not try to measure the height of the batter (I’ll measure it the next time I bake it). After baking, batter #1 was slightly lower than an inch and batter #2 was approximately 1.25” in height. Using the whisk attachment for the entire batter production was definitely an improvement but it’s still not as tall as the one in http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2009/11/outcakes_deep_chocolate_passio_1.html). I’m not sure what happened during the process :(

The wedding cake looks absolutely gorgeous. How tall were the layers?

Thanks - the finished layers were somewhere between 1.5 and 1.75-inches - I didn’t actually measure them.  After filling, stacking, and frosting, the tiers were about 4-inches tall.  Have you checked the freshness/effectiveness of your baking powder and baking soda?  Are you sure your not mixing the two measurements up?