This recipe has been in my family forever, it seems. This is the cake that's served at every special occasion, especially birthdays. My grandmother would wrap coins in plastic and stick them in the cake before baking. It's a wonderfully rich and moist chocolate cake -- the way a devil's food cake should be. Print out and save, if you'd like. But please always give credit to my Aunt Beck.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup shortening (NOT butter -- use Crisco)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup sour milk (milk + 2 T vinegar)
- 2 cups plus 2 T flour (regular all-purpose flour)
- 1 tsp. vanilla (REAL vanilla, please!)
- 1 cup boiling water w/2 tsp baking soda
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Cream together shortening and sugar, and then add cocoa, eggs, flour, and vanilla. (I make this by hand, but you can use a mixer.)
- Add sour milk, mix well.
- Boil the water and then add 2 tsp baking soda (it helps if you use a big glass measuring cup, as the baking soda will make the water fizz all over the place.
- Add boiling water SLOWLY to the batter. If you add it all at once, it will fly out of the bowl and make a mess all over you, the counter, and the floor.
- Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. (You can make this as a sheet cake or cupcakes, but I don't.)
- Pour batter evenly into the two pans -- pans should be about 1/2 full. Bang pans sharply on the counter. AND I MEAN BANG -- until the bubbles are gone.
- Bake for approximately 1/2 hour, or until top of cake springs back when you poke at it with your finger. You can also do the toothpick/knife test -- cake is done when toothpick/knife comes out clean after insertion into the cake.
- Let cake cool in pans after baking, and then remove from pans. Use your favorite icing -- mine is a mocha icing. The recipe for it is below.
Mocha Icing:
- Icing sugar (10X Sugar), cocoa, instant coffee, butter, vanilla, milk.
For an 8-inch layer cake, I used almost a whole box of the sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa, 1 tsp. vanilla, 3 T butter (unsalted), and 1/2-3/4 tsp. instant coffee powder. Mix everything together in a bowl and then add enough milk to get a smooth (not runny, not like concrete) consistency. Usually 1/3 cup to start is good. Make sure everything is blended together well and then frost the cake. Of course how much icing you make depends on how much you want to leave in the bowl and on the spoon/beaters for licking after you're done.