My brother called me last night and asked if I would mind making a birthday cake for his 7-yr-old daughter, Ashlyn. The family celebration was at lunchtime today, so knowing the alternative was store-bought or boxed cake mix, I agreed without hesitation.
I was planning to make the Oriole Devil's Food Cake, because I already knew it was good, and I've been wanting to try it with the original Orange-Lemon frosting. However, when I realized that I was out of baking chocolate, it was back to the Yellow Box. It was a lazy Sunday morning, and I was not interested in making a special trip to the grocery store.
There's not a whole lot to say about the preparation. I picked out this Chocolate Cake recipe because I had all the ingredients. I went with butter instead of shortening, which probably affected the texture of the cake. Maybe I'll test it out some day and see just how different it is, but I avoid shortening when I can. Also, I didn't read the directions very thoroughly, and missed the part that said to mix the buttermilk and baking soda together. I sifted the soda in with the rest of the dry ingredients, and I have no idea if that made any difference in the outcome.
The recipe doesn't specify, but it is just right for two 8" round cake pans, which I greased and floured.
I took the finished cakes to my parents' house to stack and frost before lunch. I went with a cream cheese frosting, because it's easy, my mom had the ingredients, and I love cream cheese frosting with chocolate cake. I asked my niece if she wanted the frosting to be any particular color, and she picked light green. It came out a very pretty shade, but when the cake was sliced and served, it made us think of mint-chocolate, which, in hindsight, would have been pretty fantastic. I'm not so sure the mint flavor would mesh with the cream cheese, though, so I've made a mental note to try it next time with maybe a buttercream frosting and a little mint extract.
Here's the cake, which I decorated in much too much of a hurry, since the family was already sitting down for the meal. I set aside some frosting without food coloring in a Ziploc snack baggie to write Ashlyn's name on top of the cake, but then I snipped too big of a hole in the corner and the letters came out huge and I ran out of room. Very sloppy job. Oh, well. Ashlyn didn't seem to care.
I fogot to get a photo of a slice of cake, and my brother took the leftovers home, so I asked him to send me a pic. This is what he sent - I kind of like the ceramic coffee jar with the troubadors serenading the cake in the background:
The cake itself was very good. The texture wasn't what I'd call light-and-fluffy, nor did I think it was dense-and-heavy. It definitely wasn't as fudgey as the Oriole Devil's Food Cake. It was just... chocolate cake that tasted good.
Everyone really liked it, so I call that a "win."
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Chocolate Cake
Ingredients: [rearranged to correspond to the recipe]
2 cups sugar
½ cup shortening (I used butter)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
3 heaping tbsp cocoa
½ cup buttermilk
1¼ tsp baking soda
1 cup hot water
1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
[Combine buttermilk and soda]
Cream sugar and shortening.
Add eggs, slightly beaten.
Sift dry ingredients three times. Add alternately to mixture with sour milk [buttermilk] and soda combined.
Last, add hot water and vanilla.
[pour batter into two 8" round greased and floured pans]
Bake in a moderate oven (350°) [30-35 minutes].
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