HOW MANY CHOCOLATE CAKES DO WE NEED? AT LEAST THREE

Cake of enchantment, created by Tamara last week!

Inspired by that, but sticking to our more homely theme, here are three chocolate cake recipes from our family past, which are the home-style fairly fast kids' birthday kind - also lovable.  And maybe if we're lucky Tamara will send hers in too.

DECADENT CAKE:  Go-to birthday cake in the Andrews/Werner family.
(not decadent at all, really, but that's what they called it in the venerable Silver Palate cookbook, which in this house opens automatically to this page.  Slightly amended.)

• 1 cp. boiling water
• 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract (optional)
• 2 cps. sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cp. yogurt (best if full fat)
• 2 cps. all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour either a bundt cake pan or a 13x9" pan.

Pour boiling water over butter and chocolate and let stand until melted.  Stir in vanilla, almond extract, and sugar, then whisk in egg yolks, one at a time.  Separately, mix baking soda and yogurt thoroughly, and then whisk this into the chocolate mixture.  Sift flour and baking powder into the batter and mix thoroughly. 

Separately, beat egg whites with the salt until they hold a shape.  Fold them into the batter gently, a quarter at a time.  Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30 - 45 minutes, checking at 30 minutes to see if the top bounces back when you touch it, and a toothpick or thin wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.  When it does, it's done - cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then unmold.  Frost when it's perfectly cool.

Frosting:

• 2 TB unsalted butter
• 3/4 cp. semisweet chocolate chips
• 6 TB heavy cream
• 1 1/4 cps. sifted powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract (or 1 tsp. vanilla)

Put all of these in a heavy saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth. Take off the heat and let cool until it thickens somewhat but is still warm and gooey.  Spread over the cake the way you like it.  


Next up:

:

NAN'S CHOCOLATE CAKE

This is the one my Nan always made for us, and always said "it didn't come out right!" and we always loved it of course.  It's here mainly for preservation as is Nan's fear-inspiring handwriting.

• 1/4 lb. sweet butter plus one piece (1 TB?) at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar scant
• 3 eggs separated (large probably)
• 1 2/3 cp. cake flour
• 3 sq. bitter (unsweetened) chocolate
• 1/2 cp. water
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Melt chocolate over hot water in double boiler.  Cream butter, add sugar, then egg yolks, and beat until smooth.  Add melted chocolate and stir.  Sift dry ingredients together and stir in, alternating with water.  Add vanilla.  Beat egg whites until just stiff and fold them in.  Bake in a greased tube pan for 40 min.  

Frosting:

• 3 TB butter softened
• 2 cps. confectioner sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 1 egg

Beat together and frost cake.

(A woman of few words - actually she was a woman of a crazy amount of words, but not about frosting.)

BUT IN THE END, THIS IS THE ONE EVERYONE WANTS:

MY SISTER-IN-LAW ALICE'S KILLER CAKE

• 6 oz. unsalted butter
• 6 oz. unsweetened chocolate chopped
• 6 eggs
• 3 cps. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 TB vanilla
• 1 1/2 cps. flour
• 1 1/2 cps. chocolate chips

Mix the cake by hand.  Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 9" round cake pans and line bottoms with wax or parchment paper.  

Melt butter and chocolate together over simmering water.  Cool to lukewarm.  In a large bowl, whisk together for one minute the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Whisk in the butter-sugar mixture.  Stir in the flour and chocolate chips.  Pour the batter into the pans and bake for 30-35 min. (Do not overbake - actually a cake tester should not come out clean.)  Cool on racks and remove from pans as soon as cooled.  (If you are not using it that day, these freeze well if wrapped closely.)

Frosting:

• 1 1/4 cps. sugar
• 2 TB instant coffee
• 1 cp. heavy cream
• 5 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 oz. unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine the sugar, coffee, and cream in a heavy deep saucepan.  Stirring, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 6 minutes without stirring.  Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate; stir until melted and blended in.  Add butter and vanilla and whisk well.  Chill until it begins to thicken and feels spreadable.  Spread some on top of one layer, cover with the other, and now cover the whole thing. 

At last, decadence.