Monday 25 February 2008

Another chocolate cake

Yesterday was my husband's birthday and my son wanted to make him a cake. Unfortunately, the only ingredients I had was for a chocolate cake (I am taking a chocolate break, which is why I put unfortunately. Usually, I would be more like "Woohoo, chocolate cake!" Sort of silly for me to decide to take my chocolate break a couple of days before a birthday, wasn't it?)

So, my son and I whip up a cake and I have to say, this is the easiest cake recipe out there. It requires very few dishes to clean up and the ingredients are items most of us have sitting around all the time (meaning that really, you could make this cake every day if you chose to)

By the time I got a chance to take a photo of the cake, it looked like this:

Compared to Katherine's lovely chocolate cake photo, mine looks rather ravaged. However, you will notice that my husband has scraped the bottom of the pan clean (except for where my son's piece was cut at lunch time today). That is how tasty this cake is.

Here is the (slightly modified) recipe:

1 1/4 cups unbleached flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup sugar (I know, so much sugar!!! Oh well, it's a birthday!)
1/2 tsp of salt
3/4 tsp baking soda

Put these ingredients in a glass baking pan and stir them up well. (Yes, that's right. No bowl to wash! Yay!)

To this add:
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (white vinegar works too)

Stir it up until well mixed and cook at 325 for about 35 minutes (maybe check it after 30 minutes just to be sure)

My husband came upstairs as the cake was cooling and he and L decided to ice it with some chocolate sauce that we picked up at the farmer's market and then break chocolate bar crumbles on top. Seeing this layer upon layer of chocolaty goodness was tough for my will power but I was strong... for about 5 minutes. Then I grabbed my husbands fork away and took a bite (or 2) of his piece. (I figured it doesn't count if it's not your piece of cake or your fork. Plus, it was important for me to taste it as I didn't want my family eating anything that tasted bad. Really, I'm a bit of a hero I think.) But don't feel bad for my husband having to share his piece of birthday cake. He ended up eating 3 more pieces, and then tried to nibble bits straight from the pan. Yes, that's my family. Not much for formality really, just give us some forks and we'll eat straight from the pan.

8 comments:

RJDK said...

I am still sporting the chocolate smile.

Thanks so much for the wonderful day.

Heather said...

Oooh, that looks so yummy...at least, that measly little piece that R left looks yummy. Happy belated birthday to him!

Now, Samantha, I have to say...you know how I feel about this...there is Never! any need to justify or explain your chocolate consumption...to anyone...at anytime...for any reason...Ever!!!
:-)

Nicola said...

Happy birthday, R. And Samantha, how could you be avoiding chocolate! It's a health food you know.

Anonymous said...

whoops R! Happy birthday! I can't deny it, I forgot!

Glad you got cake! It sounded like it was very yummy!

Signed, forgetful old mother-in-law!

Katherine said...

Belated happy birthday, R!
Mmmmm... that cake does look good, Samantha, no wonder it has disappeared so quickly.
Must tease you a little here. Your final sentence reminded me of Joey from Friends having a fork tucked into a pocket for any food opportunity that presents itself. If the food is good, why should formality matter?

Andrea said...

Was it called a Wacky Cake? That is the same recipe that my mom always made. You can wreck it by mixing it too much.

Samantha said...

My recipe was called cake in the pan but I cut out a bunch of sugar (and I still think it's a lot!) It didn't say anything about over mixing but I'll keep it in mind :-)

Heather said...

We used to call it Wacky Cake, in fact I still have the recipe book with that recipe (we put together the book as a fund raiser when I was in elementary school). That page has cocoa smears.