Perhaps it’s the slight chill in the air, or maybe the fog glazing the riverside but I can’t look at Halloween decorations without craving chocolate this year.
I recently made a chocolate cake for a client and I’m ever so thankful I decided to make myself a small scaled down version of this decadent delight. Convinced I would save it for a snack or dessert later that day, I was kidding myself.
Lately, like so many of us, I feel like I’ve been shot out of a cannon in turbo mode. Yesterday, chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream and a cup of strong coffee gave everything my morning needed.
My Nan-Nan (Louise Osborne) taught me it was ok to eat ice cream every once in a while for breakfast. Her flavor of choice was always butter pecan. Sometimes she would make a little mini cake just to accompany the ice cream.
On special occasions, my family would gather around the dining room table together
for lunch. We would set up a buffet and a dessert table. If we were lucky somebody
would have been up all morning making chocolate cake. It wasn’t always the prettiest,
but it always tasted good. One of the best cakes I can remember looked more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa than a three layer cake. But that just made it easier to walk past the cake and sneak a bit of the icing without anyone noticing, or so we each told ourselves.
When life gets a little wild I always turn to the kitchen for inspiration. If it gets a lot wild, I eat cake for breakfast. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the sweetness of life, one bite at a time.
Today I have included my favorite recipe for chocolate cake. It doesn’t have to be decadent but it sure can be fun to take it there.
Good luck and enjoy!
Chocolate Cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
For a simple one layer cake, spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
For a decorative cake, spray two cake circle pans. Recommended size is 4 inch and 6 inch. Anything larger may call for the recipe to be doubled.
Cupcakes may also be made using this recipe.
½ cup butter
½ cup vegetable shortening
⅓ cup cocoa
1 cup water
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
In a medium saucepan, combine the water, shortening, cocoa and water. While stirring, bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Cool to lukewarm. Sift the flour and sugar together. Combine this with the lukewarm cocoa mixture. Add the eggs, salt, vanilla, buttermilk and baking soda. Mix well. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Chocolate Frosting
½ cup butter
¼ cup cocoa
⅓ cup milk or cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 box (1 pound) powdered sugar
Combine butter, cocoa and milk. Heat until butter melts and ingredients are well combined. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Beat in powdered sugar.
If too stiff add more milk, 1 Tbsp at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.
Spread onto cake while frosting is slightly warm.
The recipe in today’s column is from Chef Babz mentor and dear friend, the late Ila J. Calton. The photo used in today’s column is from the kitchen of Chef Babz.
