The Perfect Chocolate Cake

I’ve really been getting into this Julia/Julie thing. I refuse to cook my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking or any other cookbook. So, I have been on a mission to decide what I could do. I decided on making the perfect chocolate cake.

You see, most chocolate cakes seem a little dry. So I want to make a perfect chocolate cake. To get started, I picked a recipe entitled “The Perfect Chocolate Cake”. This is a chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and a chocolate frosting. I baked it and it turned out to be ‘perfect’. The cake was moist with a wonderful chocolate flavor. To be sure I was on track; I served it to some friends of mine. To my utter surprise, my friend Roger licked the plate. And I thought I can’t improve on plate licking. As it turns out the recipe was first published by Southern Living magazine in September 1977. It has been more of their more requested cake recipes. I guess that proves that a true classic never goes out of style.

I didn’t manage to get a picture of Roger. But it would have been quite a picture. You will have to be content with a picture of the cake and a recipe. I hope you bake the cake and enjoy it as much as my friends. Who knows, it could become your plate licking cake too.

If you have a ‘perfect’ chocolate cake recipe, please let us know.

Perfect Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

Cake
1 cup cocoa
2 cups boiling water
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2½ cups sugar
4 eggs
2¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons vanilla flavoring
Whipped Cream Filling (recipes follows)
Perfect Chocolate Frosting (recipes follows)

Directions:

1. Combine cocoa and boiling water, stirring until smooth. Set aside.

2. Cream butter; gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed of an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; add to creamed mixture alternately with cocoa mixture, beating at low speed of electric mixer, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in vanilla. Do not overbeat.

4. Line three 9-inch greased cake pans with wax paper; grease and flour wax paper. Pour batter into cake pans. Bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes; remove from pans, peel off wax paper, and cool layers completely on wire racks.

5. Spread Whipped Cream Filling between layers; spread Perfect Chocolate Frosting on top and sides of cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Whipped Cream Filling
1 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
¼ cup sifted powdered sugar

Beat whipping cream and vanilla until foamy; gradually add powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Chill.

Perfect Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:
1 package (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
½ cup half and half
¾ cup butter
2 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar

 Directions:
1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a heavy saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring until chocolate melts. Remove from heat; add powdered sugar, mixing well.

2. Set saucepan in ice, and beat at low speed of an electric mixer until frosting holds its shape and loses its gloss. Add a few more drops of half and half if needed to make spreading consistency.

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