Merciful God, You are great in compassion and Your tenderness for us is without measure. We ask You to give us today our daily bread, and also provide for the needs of all of Your hungry children around the world. Through Christ Your Son and Our Lord. Amen.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

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Doug's dad celebrated his 70th birthday on Sunday with family and friends. I was asked to bring cake -- chocolate cake to be exact -- so I made my favorite chocolate cake. And it pretty much disappeared, so I guess I'm not too far off on my favorites.

You can frost this cake with any frosting, and it is really yummy with chocolate frosting, but for the big celebration I frosted it with whipped cream. I use a few tablespoons of instant vanilla pudding to stablize the cream. A real chef would use gelatin, but the pudding works just fine. The end result is very celebratory looking and the recipe is even easier than frosting -- and easier to frost. It's very forgiving.

I decorated grandpa's cake with malted milk balls around the bottom and grated chocolate on top.




Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
1 ¾ cups flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 ½ t. baking soda
1 ½ t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
½ cups oil
2 t. vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour two round 9” pans or a 13”x9” pan.
In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients.
Add eggs, milk, oil (or oil and applesauce combined to make 1/2 c.) and vanilla.
Beat on medium speed for two minutes.
Stir in boiling water (by hand). (Batter will be thin.)
Pour into prepared pans.
Bake for 30-35 minutes for round pans and 35-40 minutes for oblong
(inserted toothpick will have moist crumbs, but nothing "wet").
Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans.
Cool completely before frosting.


Whipped Cream Frosting

3 c. whipping cream
4 T. instant vanilla pudding mix
4 T. powdered sugar

In a large mixing bowl, begin whipping cream on medium.
Add pudding mix and powdered sugar and turn up to high.
Whip until cream is very fluffy and holds its peaks
(just don't go to far and make butter).
After cake is completely cool, frost in between layers, sides and top of cake.
Decorate if desired.

Refrigerate cake before serving and refrigerate leftovers.
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5 comments:

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

How pretty! I love the malted-milk-ball trim, though I must admit that I'd find it hard to leave enough for the trim, since I am powerless over the lure of Whoppers :)

Dea said...

That looks gorgeous. Great idea with the Maltesers. Yum!

JANET said...

My men and me will love this chocolate cake, and I appreciate a recipe with substitutions that make it even tastier.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Nice job

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

I made this yesterday for Hubs' birthday. In a bundt pan, it bakes for 45 to 50 minutes. This cake is SO good! I used your buttercream recipe; had way too much left over. For a bundt cake, I think 1 stick of butter's worth of frosting would have done the job.