27/365: National Chocolate Cake Day

January 27th is one of those days where you can have your cake and eat it, too! In fact, if you’re celebrating National Chocolate Cake Day – like we are – that’s pretty much an order! What a delicious order, too. Few things in this world are more sweetly satisfying than chocolate cake.

Cake has been around for a long time. The word dates back to the Viking times and the Old Norse word “kaka.” Umm…I’m glad we modernized the spelling, because around these parts “kaka” means something else entirely (and is most definitely NOT tasty). Cakes, breads, and pastries were interchangeable back then, and basically all referred to anything that was bread or bread-like. Modern cakes are sweet, and associated with special occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and vasectomies. Once upon a time baking a cake took real skill, but in the 1930s the first boxed cake mix was introduced by the Duff Company. Duncan Hines and General Mills followed suit with cake mixes that required nothing more than the addition of water. They were so easy, even a caveman could make them! Hey, that would make a good tagline for some company…

Today, the most popular cake is chocolate. There are dozens of varieties: Black Forest, Devil’s Food, Ganache, German Chocolate, Molten Chocolate, Red Velvet…the list is endless. Tara made one of her favorite recipes. I’ll let her tell you all about it! 

Wow…Mark actually asked me if I wanted to contribute this time.  He’s such a blog hog!  😉

Anyway, the chocolate cake recipe.  It’s awesome.  I found it in one of those Parade newspaper inserts several years ago and though I was a little bit leery of making a cake from scratch, I quickly found it was very easy.  It’s also the right blend of moist and not too sweet, which is a plus for someone (me) that can tear through half an entire cake in one night.  Okay…that only happened one time and it had been a helluva week.

Buttermilk Brownie Cake

Cake:

2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup reduced-fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400° F. Grease a 15″x10″ baking dish (I used my 9×13, it works fine)

Combine sugar, flour, and cocoa.  Mix well

Combine water, oil, and butter in a medium sauce pan.  Bring to a boil.  Add to flour mixture and mix well.

Add buttermilk, baking soda, eggs, and vanilla.  Beat well and pour into pan.  Bake 20-25 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let cool.

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup reduced-fat buttermilk
1 pound confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine butter, cocoa, and buttermilk in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

Gradually beat in confectioners sugar and vanilla until well blended.  Spread evenly over cake.

Enjoy!

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