The Sad Tale of My Famous Chocolate Cake and THE RECIPE!
I know, I know. I promised the recipe for my famous chocolate cake a long time ago to my readers. I was just too busy/lazy to type it up!
So it’s national Dessert Day today! And you thought it was Columbus Day! Shows you where my priorities lie.
To celebrate, I am copying my recipe here for you all! (Actually I had to type it up for a recent shower, so there you go.)
Before I do though, I have to tell you one quite sad story of the chocolate cake.
People invite me over and when I ask what I can bring, they always request this cake. ALWAYS. I have shared the recipe with them, but my friends insist that it always tastes just a little bit different when I make it. I think different ovens work different kinds of magic, but I promise, I always share the real and true recipe.
I think it’s just that I have made this cake almost a thousand times. At least 20 or more cakes a year, times the last 30 years. Plus, plus, plus. (Hospitality suites, etc) I can make it with my eyes blindfolded. I can do it in my sleep.
Well, maybe that last statement isn’t true. Just a week ago, I was invited to our friend’s country home. Jan was serving dinner to a large group Saturday night and so I thought I would bring one of my chocolate cakes.
The Thursday night before, I was planning to make the cake after I returned from my Bikram Yoga class. I have written about that before in this blog, and although I have gotten used to it and it has become easier, I am the walking dead after I do it, particularly if I do it after a long work day, which it happened to be on this Thursday.
So knowing I could be half dead or half asleep, I set out to bake it after my shower after yoga. Bad Plan.
In my history of hundreds and hundreds of cakes, I have never failed on one. Sure some were a little more well done than others if my timing was a bit off, but none were inedible. I even made it without the flour one time, and everyone insisted it was delicious.
So a few Thursdays ago, I spent 45 minutes preparing the cake mix, poured it in the spring form pan, and popped it in the oven.
When done an hour later, it smelled delicious. As usual, the entire home smelled chocolately good. Knowing how much Jan and her crowd would love it, I took it out of the oven after 10 at night – it had to cool.
As I gingerly removed it from the oven, the bottom fell out of the spring form pan and the cake plopped sloppily all over my kitchen floor. Non-ccoled, it just collapsed and was a gooey non-edible mess.
As I looked over my labor of love, I cried. My husband saw how distraught I was and cleaned up the mess. Gooey chocolate to the garbage! Since we were leaving after work the next day, there was no opportunity to do it again.
I realized what I did wrong in my tired and delirious haze. I put the base of the spring form pan upside down, so it was not secured by it’s usual lip. An unsecured bottom will not hold this heavy cake, I can testify to that!
Anyway, we bought Jan a delicious pie from a famous pie shop and told her the sad story of her almost chocolate cake.
Here’s the Recipe and Happy Dessert Day! Enjoy!!
Arlene’s Chocolate fudge cake recipe
12 oz semi sweet morsels – melted with 5 tbls of instant coffee
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
6 egg yolks and 6 egg whites
Prepare 9 inch spring form, buttered and floured well. Preheat oven to 350
Melt morsels in double-boiler with 5 tablespoons of coffee, stir till melted and smooth, take off flame.
Mix butter and sugar. Add one egg yolk at a time and stir vigorously each time. When all six egg yolks are well mixed, add flour, fold into mixture until smooth.
Beat egg whites till stiff but not dry. Fold in the melted chocolate morsels. When well blended, add to flour mixture and stir till blended and smooth
Pour batter into spring form and bake for 60 minutes. Top should be crusty. Top with confectioners sugar.
