Spontaneous Chocolate Cake

 

My oldest daughter had her first AP Exam this past week and it was unusually stressful for a variety of reasons (mainly the College Board is a terrible, terrible organization that priorities profit over students every chance it gets). She suggested a chocolate cake to celebrate. 

So, I reviewed every chocolate cake in my cookbook collection. And then went with the one I always go with every time chocolate cake is required - a variation of the Hershey's basic chocolate cake. It's simple,  it's consistent and, the way I make it, it's naturally parve.  And there's no butter/margarine so it doesn't even need the stand mixer. Just a good whisk and a spatula. Which is good because it meant the stand mixer was clean and ready to make the margarine based frosting. 

The recipe is simple: 

Cake: 

Ingredients:

14 oz or 2 cups  Granulated Sugar 

8.75 oz or 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 1/4 oz or 3/4 cup Dutch Processed Cocoa (Sorry Hershey, I use Droste) 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder 

1 1/2 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp kosher salt

2 large eggs

1 cup cold water

1/2 cup vegetable oil 

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water 

Directions: 

Preheat your oven to 350F (or 325 convection). Spray a 9 x 13 pan with baking spray. 

Mix together the dry ingredients: sugar, all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

Add the eggs, cold water, vegetable oil and vanilla and mix until combined. 

Slowly stir in boiling water. The batter will be runny and that's OK. 

Pour the thin batter into your prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes, rotating your pan about halfway through. It's done when it's starting to pull away from the edges of the pan and a toothpick comes out clean. 

Wait until completely cooled to frost. 

There's no shame in wanting to lick that.

The frosting is a chocolate version of the basic American buttercream. 

I used King Arthur's Black Cocoa Powder but the Droste works well too if you don't happen to keep several kinds of cocoa powder in the pantry. I like the stronger, more bitter cocoa powder for the frosting to cut through the sweetness of all that sugar. When I'm making this in vanilla, I frequently use lemon juice instead of water or milk for the same reason. 

Ingredients: 

2 sticks of margarine, cool room temperature 

1/2 tsp of kosher salt

1 lb of powdered sugar 

2 Tablespoons Cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 Tablespoons Water or Plant Milk (I used oat milk) 

Directions:

Beat the margarine in your mixer at high speed for a minute to start getting it fluffy. Add the salt and beat for another few seconds. Lower the speed on your mixer to the lowest setting and begin adding the powdered sugar, then the cocoa powder. Once it's incorporated add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon of water or plant milk. Increase the speed and beat until fluffy. 

Spread the frosting over the cooled cake. 

Then serve to your grateful but still cranky teenager. And all her siblings. 

Leftovers (if there are any) can be wrapped and kept at room temperature for at least a few days.