Chocolate cake

Every time I eat a huge wedge of chocolate cake, I feel like the fat kid in Roald Dahl’s book Matilda. You know …  Bruce Bogtrotter. The boy who gets caught eating the Trunchbull’s coveted chocolate cake and gets punished by being forced to eat an entire chocolate cake in an auditorium in front of the entire school?

Ok. Maybe you don’t know what I am talking about. Maybe I have issues. Anyway …. Here’s a recipe for a scrumptious chocolate cake. One that the Trunchbull and Bruce may have enjoyed.

If you hate washing dishes like I do, then you’ll appreciate the simplicity of this chocolate cake recipe — it only requires dirtying up one bowl. Hurray.

Because this recipe easy to make and produces good results every time, it has become my default chocolate cake recipe. To make a layer cake, I bake the batter in two round pans, and then layer the cakes on top of each other with a filling of chocolate mousse (courtesy of a boxed mix) in between.

Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup cold brewed coffee

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan or two 9 inch round pans.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the eggs, coffee, milk, oil and vinegar. Mix until smooth, batter will be thin. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

This article appears in Sep 1-8, 2009.