I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong. I have made 3 chocolate cakes and they all turn out smelling and tasting the same way.. They dont smell like a cake and they have no chocolate taste what so ever. My poor husband told me "they smell and taste YUCKY.. I tried 3 different recipes. I use my kitchen aid mixer on the slowest speed to mix. Any help would be great..

Are you using a stratch recipe or box?

can you post the recipes that you tried? perhaps some of your ingredients have expired?

Yes please post the recipes and hopefully we can all help you figure out what went wrong...

Yes please post the recipes and hopefully we can all help you figure out what went wrong...

2/3 c butter softened ( i used salted)
1-2/3c sugar
3-eggs
2c- all purpose flour (brand new bag)
1 1/4 teasppon baking soda
1teaspoon salt 1 1/3c milk
2/3 c cocoa

cream butter and sugar until fluffy. add eggs one at a time combine cocoa, soda, and salt add to creamed mixture with milk beating until smooth after each addition. bake 350 for 35 mins..

I cleaned pan before I used it. the other two recipes call for 1tsp vanilla.

If nobody can find anything wrong with your recipe, then check to see if your Kitchen Aid mixer is leaking oil. It's happening to people lately.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=kitchen+aid+mixer+leaking+oil&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I always use unsalted butter for one thing. Also, what size eggs are you using? Most recipes if they do not specify mean Large eggs.

Are you adding the dry ingredients in 3 batches mixed in with two additions of milk (so dry-milk-dry-milk-dry) and your milk isn't out of date?

I have been using large eggs and my milk is fresh. Could the problem be im using 2%?? Also on the bottom of my cocoa it says " best if used by 12-30-10. for the last two cakes I baked I did do the dry-milk-dry-milk-dry. Also Im using hershey cocoa, is that a good cocoa?

weird. did the cake not rise at all?

About 2 years ago we were making several of our chocolate cakes (scratch). they always came out perfect, until this night. My first one came out and sunk right away. The next one never rose, and I was getting more frustrated. I called my husband and he told me he'd take over when he got home and picked up fresh eggs and flour. Same thing. We finally went and got and got fresh cocoa, and bingo, everything was perfect again.

How about the baking soda that you are using, is it fresh? Are you sure you are using baking soda and nothing else? I had the experience of changing the containers to keep whatever inside fresher, and then I forgot what was in which container (I started labeling them with the product name and expiration dates.).

HTH

What kind of flour are you using? I find that King Arthur Flour is the most reliable for me when it comes to baking...White Lily is a close second.

Im using all fresh product except the cocoa. All the store had was gold medal flour. The cakes turned out perfect but the just smelled and tasted gross.

wow, really...a few days cocoa is out of date would do this? Thats some weird stuff.....never heard of such a thing.

I didn't even think cocoa could go bad. If I hadn't seen it first hand, I'd never have believed it. And yet, it was still fine for making frosting, but wouldn't work in the cake recipe. And we must have rebaked the cake 4 or 5 times before we got fresh cocoa. thank goodness we did finally try that; but it was only because nothing else was working for us.

Maybe it is the mixer? My MIL's KA started to leak oil and made her bread taste awful.

I think it's the salted butter. Depending on the salt content and considering that you add additional salt, I would guess that this is the culpritt.

We looked and my mixer is not leaking oil. Thank goodness!! I'm going to the store to buy new cocoa and new butter. Hopefully everything works out.

Good Luck - let us know!

Baking soda will give you a slightly bitter taste. Baking powder is much better for a cake recipe. Especially chocolate which can be so easily affected by other ingredients.
Using melted unsweetened chocolate will also give you a more chocolaty flavor than cocoa.

I use a book called "The Cake Bible" for my scratch recipes. It is my go to book and has never disappointed me.

Did you ever get the problem figured out?

When I tried my husband said that it tasted plain. Yesterday I tried another cake and he it doesnt have that chocolate cake taste. :/ Can I use baking powder instead baking soda??

Not sure what im doing wrong but Im going to keep at it tell I get it right!!

I think you should change the recipe to another one?

Here's one from Sky High. Very chocolaty and "intense" as the blogger says. Your husband might find the chocolate taste in this one. Only the frosting has peanut butter, not the cake.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/

Please read the following thread:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=639593&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0

And then try this recipe (which won the scratch off):

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Double-Chocolate-Layer-Cake-101275

I made this for one of the tiers of my wedding cake a month ago. It was the only cake completely demolished during the reception.

Make sure all of your ingredients are fresh, use unsalted butter, and most importantly, make sure they are all at ROOM TEMPERATURE. This really affects the way the cake bakes (maybe not so much how it tastes).

It's delicious and it takes less than 15 min to get the batter mixed. I've done it without a mixer even, when I don't feel like using it.

One warning: the batter is very thin and "liquid" but it bakes OK. It scared me the first time. When I make cupcakes with this, I use a cup to pour it into the wells, as opposed to a cookie spoon.