I wanted to do something special and that came in the form of something that easily looks more elegant and that is checkerboard cake. This came from an old recipe card I have had since a child but it was an adventure. I set up with my sous chefs and we live streamed this, but man did it blow my expectations!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 3 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 3/4 cup softened butter

• 3 large eggs

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 cup milk

• 2 squares semisweet melted and cooled chocolate

• 1 square unsweetened melted and cooled chocolate

• 1 1/2 can chocolate frosting

Prep

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Take 3 round cake pans and line with parchment paper and spray non stick spray on it

3. In a small enough bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt

4. In another bowl add the butter and the sugar and mix well. We had melted the butter a bit too much, not softened and this made it look like cottage cheese, we kept going anyway. If you have a real mixer this might take 5 minutes, we just used my arm until I was tired

5. Add the eggs and beat well

6. Add the vanilla and beat well

7. Add the milk and beat well

8. Add the flour mixture and beat well. By time we finished adding the flour this looked like normal cake batter. According to those that tried it, it tasted great too.

9. Split this mixture in half between two bowls

10. Add the melted chocolate to one of the bowls and mix it super well so that it’s a light chocolate color. This cake is all about the visuals.

11. Pour each batter into their own piping bag. Close the back and cut open the tips

12. In two of the pans add an outer ring of chocolate (or the vanilla, as long as you’re consistent), a middle ring of vanilla and a center filled in with chocolate

13. In the last pan add the reverse. Three pans with three rings in each and two have the same configuration of color distribution

14. Add all to the oven and bake for ~ 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick is clean or where you like your bakes

15. Cool for about 10 minutes in the pans and on a wire rack until cool enough to ice

16. Select one of the layers that you have two of for the base.

17. Add a layer of chocolate frosting on top

18. Add the single layer that was reverse on top

19. Add another layer of frosting

20. Add the last layer that matches the bottom

21. Ice the entire cake, decorate as you please

22. Take a slice and see what your insides hold

Afterthoughts

I forgot to take photos as we were having such fun but this was a super shock that it came out as clean as it did. I was not expecting this as I thought my rings were inconsistent in size and super sloppy. We baked ours more than I prefer so it tasted dryer than I like but was still good. The mixture of semisweet and unsweetened chocolate was an interesting take on chocolate. The overall flavors were similar to a marble cake with the bursts of different flavors coming more regularly. A fun cake that will surely impress your friends and family as long as they aren’t professional bakers.