Family Chocolate Cake Recipe

This Family Chocolate Cake recipe is not my family's -- it belongs to the Wenzel family whose son Ryan worked for me a few years ago. It was passed down from Ryan's paternal grandmother and the go-to cake for all family birthdays. After he shared the recipe, I baked one for his farewell party. Although it was delicious, and a big hit, I never got around to blogging about it. Until now.

We celebrated my niece Jessica's birthday last weekend because it happened to fall on Honeyball Day, our family tradition where we make strufoli, an Italian confection from my husband's childhood. I'm not a fan, but it's a fun day. However, I am a big fan of this old-fashioned chocolate cake with white frosting, also called "gravy" frosting. You'll see why below.

Start by melting the butter and chocolate in water.

When it's smooth, remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.  Because chocolate is the star, it's better to use good quality (i.e., not a supermarket brand) chocolate. I used Scharffen Berger, one of my favorites. 

Next, start the batter.  It really couldn't be easier.

Add the chocolate mixture to the batter and incorporate.

After adding the dry ingredients and sour cream, pour the batter into greased and floured pans.

Remove from the oven, cool on a rack for about ten minutes, then turn the cakes out from the pan to completely cool. Ryan once skipped this important step, and frosted a warm cake, with rather unfortunate consequences.

While the cake is cooling, begin the frosting. It uses flour (!)) which is why it is often referred to as gravy icing. It's a very old recipe and one that should be returned to the American frosting repertoire. I screwed this up the first time by overcooking the flour and water mixture. You want it to be thickened, but not so much that it congeals, as below. Lesson learned.

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the cooled "gravy" mixture and continue beating until light and fluffy.

Frost the cake. As you can see at the top, this didn't make quite enough frosting to completely cover two nine-inch layers, so I made a naked cake, all the rage these days. However, if you plan to do so, even off the cakes completely (cut the domes flat) so the side frosting doesn't gather in the gap.

Wenzel Family Chocolate Cake and White Icing

Production notes: I followed this recipe exactly, except I substituted butter for the margarine.  I baked it in two nine-inch round pans -- but didn't have enough frosting. If you want to fully frost a two-layer cake, increase the frosting amounts by 50 percent. I baked the cakes for 25 minutes. Check for doneness at 20 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the centers. (Also, Ryan just let me know that the original recipe calls for semisweet chocolate, though the unsweetened works fine.)

The birthday girl, Jessica, below. Not only was she elected to the Alpha Omega honor society in medical school, and matched to her first choice for residency, she is about to become chief resident in pediatrics (a specialty that will be very welcome in our family in a few months!), and plans to follow with a fellowship in pediatric intensive care.

Chocolate Cake

A few weeks ago, I gave nonstop tours of Henry Street Settlement (my place of employ) to nearly 200 visitors during Open House New York and, in a moment of insanity, invited my children and their others to dinner that night. When I arrived home at 6:30, the DH was in the midst of a pasta cooking frenzy, but something was missing -- dessert.  And so, fortified by a cocktail, I decided to whip up a simple chocolate cake I knew would please all.

I chose an oil-based (instead of butter) cake because I didn't have time to let the butter come to room temperature. (There's a way to do this in the microwave, but I've never quite mastered that skill.)  One sacrifices a bit of flavor when making an oil cake, but the mouth feel, moistness and ease of preparation of these cakes can't be beat.

The layers are not gorgeous straight from the oven.  That's what frosting is for.  Luckily, I had some vanilla buttercream left over from a previous cake foray, but if you don't, it's not hard to make.

Sprinkles add a festive touch.

 Below are the DD and her fiance Josh, enjoying the cake.  (Note the Henry Street coffee cup.)

The method on the card (probably from the 1950s) is a bit unclear, but here's what I did. 

Place the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and flour in a bowl. Set aside.

I melted three ounces of unsweetened chocolate and set it aside. (If you use cocoa powder, a better and easier choice should you have it on hand, add it to the bowl with the dry ingredients.)

In a mixing bowl, place the oil, eggs, vanilla and milk.  Blend.  Add the dry ingredients and blend.  Add the boiling water and melted chocolate and blend again.  

Pour into two 9-inch greased and floured baking tins. Bake and frost.

A reader just pointed out that this recipe is identical to that on the Hershey's cocoa can.  Here's the method they use (a bit less complicated than mine):

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely

Rental House Chocolate Cake

Cooking in a rental house can be challenging, as in, why isn't there a ten-inch saute pan anywhere, but it can also be one of life's pleasures, involving creative compromise, enterprise and experimentation.*  On a recent family vacation to Orcas Island in Washington State, I upped the ante by not only cooking nearly all our meals, but also baking a chocolate cake.  The local vintage recipe, "Mrs. Mary Dow's Dark Cake," was in Faith, Food and Fond Memories, the Orcas Island Community Church Centennial Cookbook 1884-1984 that I purchased at the nearby town's only antique store.

I chose that recipe because its ingredient list included staples I'd already bought, including the most delicious fresh milk (see how the cream has risen to the top?) at Coffelt Farm and fresh eggs from Once in a Blue Moon Farm whose yolks were deep yellow.

Begin the recipe by "measuring" the butter so that it's the size of an egg.

Put the rest of the ingredients together.

And add the melted chocolate.

The recipes says to beat the batter well -- "The more it is beaten, the better it is."  I didn't do this, as overbeating usually results in a tough cake texture.  (But, in an attempt to follow the recipe instructions, I did beat it a bit more than normal.)  The batter will be very thick.  Spoon into the prepared pan (the closest you have to 9 x 13 inches) and smooth the top. Bake in a 350F oven.

Remove from the oven and, when cool, frost with any chocolate frosting.  (I used a modern chocolate buttercream I found on the internet, as the vintage cookbook didn't have any.)

Cake with some fresh Orcas Island berries.

Cake enjoying ocean view.

Our rental house, and some of its temporary occupants.

*For more about rental house cooking, read this great article by Melissa Clark in The New York Times.

Bruce Bogtrotter's Cake

Poor Bruce Bogtrotter, the schoolboy in Roald Dahl's book Matilda who was forced by the evil headmistress to eat a ginormous chocolate cake after getting caught stealing just a sliver. As his classmates cheered him on, Bruce finally finished -- but it was so painful, you just know that he would never eat chocolate cake for the rest of his life.

I read the book, saw the movie and last week was lucky enough to see Matilda's latest incarnation as a Broadway musical (excellent!), and so without further ado I bring you Bruce Bogtrotter's cake, even though it's not from a handwritten recipe card but from the 1994 book Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes, a cookbook featuring recipes from all of his books.  Every recipe I've tried in it is fantastic; this cake is no exception. (Just don't eat it in a single sitting.)

This dense nearly flourless chocolate cake is easy to make, slices beautifully and would make Ms. Trunchbull (the headmistress) proud.

Start by melting the chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water.

Add the butter and blend until smooth.

After the rest of the ingredients are added (eggs, sugar and flour) pour into a prepared nine-inch pan.

It should look like this when it's done.

After a few minutes, it will "fall" a bit.  But don't worry, it's supposed to.  Just be sure to flip it over before frosting.

While the cake is cooling, begin making the frosting by melting chocolate and heavy cream.  When it's well combined, remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

The unfrosted cake, below.

Place some parchment (or newspaper) beneath the cake to catch the excess chocolate frosting.  It's best applied by spooning it on, and smoothing it out, if necessary, with an offset spatula.

Below is a scan of the page in Revolting Recipes, illustrated by Quentin Blake.  This recipe, and the others, were developed by Josie Fison, the Dahl family's private chef.

Bruce Bogtrotter's Cake
Serves 1 to 8!
(from Matilda)

8 ounces good quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup plus two tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 eggs separated, yolks lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a 9 inch cake pan with parchment paper, and grease and flour the pan (including the paper)
Melt the chocolate in a bowl set atop a saucepan of simmering water.  Mix in butter and stir until melted.
Transfer to a large bowl and add the sugar, flour and lightly beaten egg yolks.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Gently fold half of the whites into the chocolate mixture, blending thoroughly, then fold in remaining whites.
Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for about 35 minutes.  There will be a thin crust on top of the cake, and if tested with a toothpick the inside will appear undercooked. Don't worry; the cake will get firmer as it cools. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan on a wire rack.  While the cake is cooling, make the frosting.

Frosting
8 ounces good quality semisweet chocolate
8 ounces heavy cream

Melt the chocolate with the cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over lowest heat, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is fully melted and blended with the cream. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
When the cake is cool enough to handle, remove it from the pan.  Flip the cake upside down before frosting.
Carefully pour the frosting, with a spoon, over the cake. Smooth out with a spatula.

My Mother's Chocolate Birthday Cake

I subscribe to the theory that people don't really change; instead, we just become more like we are.  And so I found myself in Akron a few weeks ago, along with my brother, both of us there to help our mother Bee move into the independent living place with the French name just a few miles from her house.

My brother Steve (aka Mr. Wonderful, so named by my mother, a moniker his wife and I will not let die) hung flat screen televisions and oil paintings on the walls of Bee's new place, assembled furniture (which he had purchased and transported from his home in Ann Arbor after creating a complex computer generated 3-D floor plan), and otherwise performed a lot of necessary and wonderful tasks.  While he was doing all that, I baked a cake, helpfully messing up the kitchen of the house I was supposed to be packing up. (If you haven't already guessed, I was am the black sheep.)

This chocolate cake -- baked for my mother's 83rd birthday -- is really, really good and it couldn't be simpler.  (And I even managed to pack the Waterford and Llardro while it was in the oven.)

The recipe called for clabbered milk, easily made by squeezing some fresh lemon juice into milk and letting it sit until it thickens.  You can swap this out with buttermilk (and vice versa).

As often happens at family gatherings, there was some drama -- in this case, pastry separation anxiety.  One of the cake layers didn't release from the pan properly and things were looking grim.

But I simply (and carefully) removed the cake left behind in the pan and placed it on the larger piece (think edible jigsaw puzzle), while my sister-in-law wondered if  "cake glue" was available.  (It is, but you make it yourself by crumbling some cake and mixing it with frosting. However, you need to plan ahead and bake an extra layer to be used in this truly ingenious cake "spackle" that I learned in a class taught by cake genius Toba Garrett.

When it was all finished , the damage was well hidden.  See, you can't even tell that this cake ever suffered any trauma at all.  If only the human heart could be so easily repaired.  (Though I suppose chocolate can play a role in that, too.)

My mother quite enjoyed her birthday cake.  After leaving some for the moving men, I transported the rest by car to her new place. And then returned to finish packing with the realization that, while I'll never live up to the standards set by Mr. Wonderful, I might just beat him in a bake-off.

The recipe card, below.  And as this is simply a list of instructions, I included the method, which is one likely was used the author of this recipe.
For the frosting, I used a version of the Magnolia Bakery buttercream (I did not have my recipe collection with me) and added some unsweetened melted chocolate and brewed coffee for a mocha frosting.  Sweet, but good.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

Combine sugar and butter (in place of lard) and mix until light and fluffy.

Add egg and mix.

Combine flour, baking soda, and cocoa in a bowl.

Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to the butter-sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.

Pour into cake pans.  Bake about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick