Some people run for health. The last time my husband ran it was for chocolate cake.
He bolted though the front door and across the yard to greet a friend from church well known for her chocolate cake. She baked one for my family after the passing of my stepdad.
After my brother took a bite, he said, "I'd run through the yard, too." Brother’s last speedy step was probably two decades ago.
I asked for the recipe recently because of National Chocolate Cake Day, which was last Saturday, according to daysoftheyear.com and timeanddate.com. The following cake recipe is a supreme use of cocoa.
My friend’s recipe is based on the Best-Ever Chocolate Cake in the “Typically Texas Cookbook” (1989 special limited edition of the first 1970 printing), a cookbook I have long had. It was published by the Texas Electric Cooperatives Inc., an association of the state's rural electric cooperatives. The recipe is credited to Mrs. Ashel McDaniel in Silverton.
The cookbook is full of recipes for no-nonsense, hearty fare to feed families. They were serving farm-to-table meals as a way of life long before foodies of this generation thought it was a novel menu philosophy at trendy restaurants. This rich chocolate cake would have been an indulgence.
As is usually the case, my first attempt at the cake was good but not yet running worthy. There are a variety of possible reasons, such as a difference in ingredient brands. But, I suspect the main culprit was the original recipe called for three 8-inch cake pans, and I had only 9-inch. So, I reduced the cooking time by five minutes, but my cake still turned out a little dryer than my friend’s masterpiece.
Next time, I will increase the ingredients by half, which will then probably result in thicker layers in my 9-inch pans that will require the original cooking time for the batter to bake through.
Following is my friend’s original recipe, with her additional tips she told me, especially concerning the trickiness of spreading the cooked Chocolate Icing. Mrs. McDaniel’s directions truly were short but sweet. My sweetness requires more direction.
With a cake this rich and calorically off the charts, maybe it is a good thing that National Chocolate Cake Day is a singular annual occurrence.
Share your own old recipes or food-related historical recollections by emailing Laura Gutschke at lgutschke@gmail.com.
BEST-EVER CHOCOLATE CAKE
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for flouring the baking pans)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup powdered cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup Crisco oil (your favorite vegetable oil will work)
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8-inch cake pans. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, powdered cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. In a medium bowl (preferably one with a pouring spout, such as a 4- or 8-cup measuring cup), combine eggs, oil and buttermilk. Add this liquid mixture to the dry ingredients.
4. Add boiling water and vanilla to the batter. Mix well. Batter will be thin. Pour batter into prepared cake pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on rack for 10 to 15 minutes before removing the cake layers from the pans. Let layers cool until ready to assemble with Chocolate Icing below.
CHOCOLATE ICING
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 a stick) butter
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup white Karo syrup
1 6-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
1. In at least a 3-quart pot, add all ingredients. Bring to a full boil over high to medium-high heat. Stir continually to prevent mixture from boiling over the pan. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add chocolate chips and vanilla. Mix until chips are melted into icing.
2. Let cool about 20-30 minutes. As the icing cools, it will tighten and harden. Monitor the icing until it reaches a consistency that is still easy enough to spread but will hold its shape and not run out between the cake layers or down the sides during the frosting process.