Auntie’s Cake

My sister is a woman with very simple, but very specific, needs.  She needs friends and interaction and loving relationships.  She needs baseball.  She needs ready access to Dunkin’ Donuts.  She needs to be able to spend time outdoors being active, and she needs chocolate cake for her birthday.

I don’t remember when I started baking this cake for her for her birthday, but I know it’s been a while.  Unlike the other people in my family who ask for different birthday sweeties every year, Auntie wants this; simple, uncomplicated, and yummy.  I’m more than happy to oblige.

I got this recipe from a Hershey’s cookbook that I think I got for a dollar at a library book sale when I was a teenager.  My only complaint about it is that sometimes it bakes unevenly – it will come out of the oven domed on one side and low on the other – but that never, ever takes away from its consistent yumminess.

Start by preheating your oven to 350 and greasing and flouring whatever pans you’re going to use (I often make this in a 9×13 rectangle, but it works just as well as rounds or cupcakes.  To be honest, I’ve never tried it in shaped pans -  mostly because I don’t have any – so I don’t know if it will work in, say, a castle pan).  Sift together 2 cups of white sugar, 1 and 1/3 cups of all purpose flour, 3/4 of a cup of cocoa powder (this is the reason I use the sieve; cocoa powder is most often lumpy), 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 and  1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of salt, then set that bowl aside.

In a measuring cup, whisk together 2 eggs, 1 cup of milk 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla (adding more if you like; I never measure vanilla so I’m pretty sure that I always add more than is called for).  Stir this into the sifted dry ingredients, then add 1 cup of boiling water.  The batter will be really thin; don’t panic – it will be fine.

How long it’s going to take to cook depends entirely on the shape of your pans and the accuracy of your oven.  For the 9×13, I set my timer at 25 minutes and check every 5 minutes or so from there – more or less, depending on how it seems to me.  The old toothpick test is a perfect gauge.

Now, I’m not sure if it’s the cake that Auntie loves, or the frosting.  I ice this cake with a combination of chocolate chips, about 1/2 a cup’s worth, melted with a tablespoon or so of butter, then cooled a bit.  I stir that into a pint of low-fat sour cream (no, the low-fat bit isn’t for the calories, but because the low-fat version has a consistency that’s better suited for this purpose) and then add a few tablespoons of Ghirardelli ground, sweet chocolate to round the whole thing out.  The combination of the depth of the chocolate chips, the tang of the sour cream and the dusky sweetness of the ground chocolate really is heavenly; I never have any trouble finding someone to lick the spatulas.  Remember, though, that the cake can’t sit out on the counter for more than an afternoon before it should be put in the fridge; the sour cream won’t hold up well at room temperature.

Make sure you’ve got plenty of milk!

YUM!