Suppose you are asked to bring a special cake to a get together, you think what should I make? Then you think about all those great recipes for chocolate cake you have.  Should you bring one of those,  or try to find something new.  Here, let’s tak about the best recipes for chocolate cake. There are numerous ways to add flavor to cake batter, even if you’re using a boxed mix.  A boxed mix is a preferred method of baking for most of America.  However many of these people add flavor to their batter making it their own.  My preferred recipe for chocolate cake includes a box mix too, at least when I’m baking from home. It is just easier and quicker to use a box. I add multiple ingredients to my mix. Usually I start out by switching the oil for butter, I think it has an overall better taste. You would just use the same exact measurements:  1/2 cup oil for a 1/2 cup melted butter. It is always important when switching out ingredients to keep them in the same form as originally called for, so if it’s a liquid,  keep it a liquid. I generally never add more liquids to my chocolate cake recipes than is called for. Cake batter can be become too moist or dense with too much liquids.  In my recipes I like to add solids like chopped up popcorn, chocolate chips, peanut butter, and even sometimes fruit.  I may suggest when adding fruit to be careful of what kind of fruit you are adding. Pineapples, peaches, and blueberries can add too much moisture during the baking process, in turn making your cake not rise properly. On the other side of things, you can leave your chocolate cake recipe alone, bake it like the directions say and add flavor to the fillings or buttercreams. You may have also noticed the wave of flavored cupcakes out there, which have carried over to cake flavors. These cakes are made by just taking a basic chocolate cake recipe and adding a filling. Fillings basically can be anything you want but may I suggest to keep it in a semi solid state, something like pudding or a mousse. You would be amazed at the possible flavors you can come up with by just starting out with a vanilla base and adding flavoring out of a bottle or some lemon or lime peel. Liquors are also a good additive. Some people cook them to take the alcohol out of it, I just brush on the flavoring right out of the bottle onto my cake. Finally, we come to the best part – the topping of our cakes. The buttercream, mousse, or whipped cream can all be enhanced to create a special flavor. I like mixing buttercream and mousse together, it gives me the best of both. It has the lightness of mousse but the stability of buttercream. Customers at my bakery really enjoy this combination, we call it fluffed buttercream. The topping just adds another layer of flavor to your cake. So no matter what recipes for chocolate cake you have, you can always make it new and different. Enjoy!