Top 100 Cake Blog

Top 100 Cake Blog

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Easy Chocolate Cake


This is truly the easiest chocolate cake ever, and surprisingly delicious. It's fun and different to make -- you've heard of a one-bowl cake -- well, this is a one-saucepan cake.  Yes, it's all mixed on the stove top.

In an essay entitled "The Low-Tech Person's Batterie de Cuisine" in Home Cooking by the late great Laurie Colwin, she writes that fancy (or a lot of) equipment isn't needed to turn out wonderful home-cooked meals. (Who needs a food processor when you have a knife?) This cake recipe, probably from the 1940s, is proof of that.  It requires just a saucepan, a fork (to beat the egg), a spoon to stir the batter, a measuring cup and a baking tin.

Start by cooking the milk, chocolate and butter.  Add  the sugar and cool.  Then add the egg and dry ingredients.  Stir and pour into an 8- or 9-inch cake pan.  (Or you could divide the batter to make a layer cake.)


When it is done baking, let it cool.  You can slice off the "dome" as I did.  A nice way to get a flat top (and taste-test the cake -- we gave it an A).


I was rushing when I made this cake because I was bringing it to a friend's house just an hour after I began the preparation.  I whipped up some vanilla frosting quickly and, because the cake was still warm when I had to frost it, left the sides unfrosted so that the heat would have an escape route. I added some sprinkles so no one would notice.


I followed the recipe exactly, baking it in an 8-inch pan.  (Not sure what a utility pan is.)  I used unsalted butter and Scharffen Berger unsweetened chocolate.  Because I didn't have any whole milk on hand, a combination of skim milk and half and half was a nice substitute.



2 comments:

  1. Easy as pie.. BTW-- does 1 t. Soda mean a teaspoon or tablespoon of soda water or baking soda??

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    1. I think that lower case "t" usually means teaspoon, while upper case "T" usually means tablespoon. Especially since I can't imagine using more than 1/4 teaspoon salt in a chocolate cake and it still being edible.

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