(smooth uptempo melodic jazz music) - Brenda, what are you doing? - (laughs maniacally) Oh my god! - You keep ruining everything! Hey guys, I'm Von. I'm a Tasty producer here in New York. (whispering) It is so cold! I love chocolate cake. I'm on my way to the store right now to buy a chocolate cake and some boxed cake mix, and I'm going to see if I can make a homemade version that rivals it. I'm going to have a taste test with some people in the office, and I guess they'll be the judge. Let's get chocolatey. You know, there's nothing
inherently wrong with boxed cake. It's great if you're in a pinch, and it's a lovely starting
off point for your cakes. For the purposes of my taste test, I'm going to follow the instructions exactly as they are on the package. However, there are a lot of really, really great ways to elevate a boxed cake. My mama is a fantastic baker, and my dad, for some reason,
loves boxed yellow cake. So, growing up, she taught me
to replace the water with milk and the oil with butter, and that higher fat content really helps the texture of the cake, because boxed cake can
be a little bit dry. (smooth uptempo melodic jazz music) There's a lot of ways
to really elevate your boxed cake so that it tastes homemade. It does dome up quite
a bit when you bake it, so I'm going to just cut that off because I really want all the
cakes to look pretty similar for my cake tasting. I'm using canned frosting
for that ultimate store-bought experience, but another way to make
boxed cake taste even better is with homemade buttercream, which is like the easiest
thing in the world to make. In my humble opinion, the best way to make any
cake look really nice is fresh fruit on top. Go from zero to hero in no time flat. Not bad boxed cake. It's like putting lipstick on a pig. Our culinary team at Tasty, led by my wonderful friend, Claire, worked really hard on
developing this amazing recipe for the ultimate chocolate cake. Um, this is kind of embarrassing, but I actually cried the
first time I tasted it. I wish I was kidding. The star of this cake is
obviously the chocolate, but there are some really
important supporting roles that help that chocolate shine. The stout and the espresso powder add so much depth to this cake. It really gives it such a boost that's going to make you go like, "Wow, "what is in this cake?" Creaming the butter and sugar is a super important process in any cake that you're going to make because when you cream
together butter and sugar, you're adding air into the butter and then the sugar's holding onto that air and then that's going to give our cake a really nice structure. Now, I didn't do this for the boxed cake because it's boxed cake, but I really like to crack
my eggs into a separate bowl, just in case you get a bad egg and adding them one at a time is important so that everything gets
nice and incorporated. Okay, don't freak out, but we're going to add some mayonnaise. We're only using half a cup. You're not going to taste it, and it's going to create the most sinfully, moist
cake you've ever had. I apologize for my
casual use of the phrase, "sinfully moist." We're going to switch off adding the dry and the
wet ingredients in stages because mainly, you just don't want to get all the (bleep) all over your kitchen. Wow, that looks so good. We're also going to add
chocolate chunks to the cake. This is just another
little element of surprise. When people bite into it, they're going to get
that fudgy, fudgy cake. They're going to get the
nice, light buttercream, and then they're going to have that snap from the chocolate. So we're going to make sure
everything is evenly distributed and it's time to bake. (smooth uptempo melodic jazz music) As you can see, they
kind of start to dome, but then flatten out as they bake. And then you'll know they're done when a toothpick comes out clean. Super smooth. Almost like, dare I say, Buttah. In the past few weeks, I've consumed more buttercream than any human being
should ever consume ever, but that is because this frosting is so light, fluffy, and delicious. The best thing about it is that it's not overly sweet and it
compliments the cake very well. It's also really smooth,
which makes it amazing for decorating which is
everybody's favorite part. Well, you know, besides
the whole eating thing. Now it's time to have some fun. I mean, this is the part where you can get as creative as you want, you can take it as simplistic as you want. Just make sure to put enough buttercream in between all those layers, that when you cut it, you got some really nice distinction. I really want to wow people
at this cake tasting, so I'm using a dough scraper
to smooth out the sides. I'm adding a ganache drip down the sides of the cake, and then I'm going to pipe a little bit of a border at the bottom and add the fruit on top. And I guess no cake is complete without the world's largest strawberry. I think it looks pretty good, and I think we're ready to go up against a store-bought cake and a boxed cake. Here we go! (distant chatter)
(uptempo melodic jazz music) - Whoa! - I would eat this entire cake. - Why would I waste my
time on any other cake? - That's the one.
- That's so good! - The first one, the
first one is totally-- - One is my favorite.
- Yay! - It is just the best
chocolate cake I've ever had. - Yes! - Okay guys, we have our three cakes here, now let's boogie. Though the homemade cake took
a little bit longer to make, it definitely was the best
experience of all three. You taste the texture, far outweighed that of the boxed cake and the store-bought cake. You cannot get a better, more moist, dare I say, cake. When we're talking about chocolate cake, you gotta use the word moist. There's nothing else. The world needs cake. It would just solve all of our problems. I'm going to the gym now. Thank you. Good night.
