I was planning to visit a local restaurant for this week’s column … until I realized that Jan. 27 is National Chocolate Cake Day. I couldn’t let this food holiday pass me by.
Chocolate cake is a relatively new addition to the baking world. For centuries, chocolate was mostly consumed in liquid form. We still drink cocoa, of course.
Molly Malcolm of the University of Michigan writes, “Cakes as we think of them today did not yet exist in this country. In fact, what was popularly understood as ‘chocolate cake’ was in fact a white or yellow cake to be eaten while drinking a chocolate beverage.
“Although chocolate began to be used in sauces and frostings, the primary understanding of chocolate as a liquid treat continued into the beginning of the 20th century.”
The first chocolate cake recipe in this country appeared in the mid-19th century. According to most sources it was published in 1847 by Eliza Leslie, a.k.a. Miss Leslie, in her “Lady’s Receipt Book.” As readers may know, the word “receipt” predated “recipe” when referring to cooking.
The first chocolate cake recipe I personally ever saw was in my mother Jan’s red handwritten recipe book and was referred to as “Mother’s Chocolate Cake.” As you might guess, it came from her mother, Clara.
When my mother became a grandmother with the birth of my nephew Michael — who is now, unbelievably to me, 25 — our family re-christened the recipe “Two Grandmothers’ Chocolate Cake” to honor both Clara and Jan.
The recipe has many useful attributes. First, it is very easy to make. You do need to have unsweetened baking chocolate in the house. I am always leery of trying to substitute cocoa plus a little oil for the baking chocolate; that method seems to me a recipe (if you’ll pardon the pun) for disaster.
If you have bittersweet chocolate instead of the unsweetened version, you can use that. You’ll just have a slightly sweeter cake. No one in my family has ever complained about that.
This recipe is also useful because it doesn’t make a particularly large cake. In some families — ones with many children, for example — that would be a problem. To my small family, it’s a true advantage.
I have often noted that the first piece of a cake is a lot tastier than the second … or, heaven forbid, the third. This is particularly true of chocolate cake. The flavor is divine and gives you that little caffeine boost … until it isn’t and doesn’t.
This taste phenomenon has engendered a personality theory called the Chocolate Cake Model. According to the British Psychological Society:
“At a superficial level, people who are narcissistic seem like they will be good leaders. They’re confident, outgoing and unafraid of putting themselves forward. But once in charge, their appeal rapidly wanes. In this way, say the authors of a new paper in the ‘Journal of Personality,’ they are rather like chocolate cake:
“‘The first bite of chocolate cake is usually rich in flavor and texture, and extremely gratifying. After a while, however, the richness of this flavor makes one feel increasingly nauseous. Being led by a narcissist could be a similar experience.’”
The old-school grammarian in me makes me remind you that the proper word there should be “nauseated” rather than “nauseous.”
Nevertheless, I can see the point. A narcissist may appear to be a strong leader … until he (it usually is a “he”) turns out to be an unempathetic jerk who wants to have his cake and eat it too. (Another culinary pun.)
Feel free to draw conclusions from this study to apply to contemporary politics. Or stay out of politics and simply enjoy your cake.
This not-too-big recipe keeps most eaters from overindulging in cake. I also recommend icing this simple cake with a vanilla buttercream or a cream cheese frosting. The contrast should help keep eaters from feeling overwhelmed by chocolate.
TINKY WEISBLAT / For the Recorder
In the final year of my mother’s life, my nephew Michael and I prepared this cake for her birthday, which falls in late September — hence the many fall candies with which Michael insisted we decorate the cake. That grandmother loved it … and so did the rest of us.
The grown-ups at the birthday party quietly moved the candies to the side of their plates. The cake is much more appealing to an adult palate without them.
Two Grandmothers’ Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate (my mother and grandmother wrote this down as “bitter chocolate.”)
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter at room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8-by-8-inch baking pan.
Place the chocolate in a small saucepan, and pour the boiling water over it. Stir to dissolve, turning the heat below on very low if necessary.
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in the baking soda.
Add the flour and the milk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in the chocolate mixture, followed by the vanilla.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.
If you want to be informal and serve the cake out of the pan, that’s just fine. To be a bit more festive, let it cool for 10 minutes and then invert it onto a cooling rack.
Ice with a contrasting frosting to keep the chocolate from becoming overwhelming. If you are cooking with kids, decorate the top with candies or sprinkles.
Serves 8 to 10.
Cream Cheese Frosting
I should note that although this is a perfect recipe for a small cake like the one above, it covers only the top of the cake. On the birthday in question, young Michael insisted that we make half a recipe more and ice the cake lavishly.
Ingredients:
4 ounces (1/2 brick) cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) sweet butter at room temperature
confectioner’s sugar to taste (aim for about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions:
Cream together the cream cheese and butter; then stir in confectioner’s sugar until the flavor seems right to you.
Don’t add too much sugar. The delight of this icing is the ever so slightly tart, creamy taste of the cheese.
Beat in the vanilla, and spread the icing over your cake. Frosts one small cake.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.