Gramma rose's chocolate cake

12 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
8 tablespoons Crisco (or other pareve or milchig shortening)
1¾ cup Cake flour (finer than \"all purpose\"flour)
1 teaspoon Baking soda; slightly heaping (see note)
1 pinch Salt <pick up a pinch between your thumb and index and middle fingers; that's enough>
½ cup Cocoa (a good \"healthy\" half cup)
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon (measuring spoon) vanilla
1¼ cup Sugar
1 cup Buttermilk

Directions

From: egolden@... (V. Ellen Golden) Date: Thu, 4 Jul 96 01:11:33 EDT I doubt it's me, but I will take this opportunity to submit what has to be one of the most sublime chocolate cakes of all time. The recipe is from my former mother-in-law, now of blessed memory, my son's Gramma Rose. I call it "Gramma Rose's Chocolate Cake" and ask only that you retain that name, in her memory.

NOTE: <for years I remembered WHICH teaspoon she used when she made it for me in my kitchen, teaching me how to make it, and used the SAME one religiously... now I can gauge it myself>.

1. Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) together into a small bowl.

2. Cream together (high speed on electric mixer) the Crisco and sugar.

3. Add enough hot water to the cocoa to make a loose squishy paste <hint:ifyoumeasurethe"halfcup"intoacupmeasure,you'llbeabletomakethepasteinthecupeasily>.

4. Add the vanilla and eggs to the electric mixer. Lower speed to medium.

Add the cocoa mixture carefully.

5. Add about ¼ cups of buttermilk to the mixer and let it "get acquainted" (beat a bit).

6. Add about a third of the dry ingredients, immediately turning the mixer down to low. Add another ¼ cup of buttermilk, then a third of the flour and so on until it is all mixed in.

7. Turn the mixer up to medium and beat until it is well blended (or 100 hand beatings).

8. Spread batter in a 9 inch by 9 inch pan, greased (with Crisco or whatever shortening you are using, with a piece of wax paper covering the bottom... don't ask me why, that's what she did...).

9. Bang the pan once sharply on the counter to get out any air bubbles.

10. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree (F) oven for 50 minutes or until done.

Oven temperatures vary, even though thermostats don't, so check it visually after 30 minutes, and again at 45 minutes. "Gramma Rose" used to make a chocolate cake as an "add on" to when she was making a pie that had a custard filling (she'd bake the crust, then make the custard, but since she'd already "made the oven", she'd use it to bake a cake until the filled pie was ready to cook... in her kitchen this was anywhere between 35 and 50 minutes, depending on the pie... in my oven, it seems to take 50 minutes, but then I'm not making a pie at the same time...:-).

Cake is done when a straw or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. This cake is very chocolaty, and usually the top will crack and pull away from the sides of the pan before the center is cooked. No icing is needed, but friends who have tried it decided to ice it and found it in no way diminished. A dusting of confectioner's sugar may also be used, but I had the distinct impression, when I tried this, that the cake disapproved! Gramma Rose NEVER did that! JEWISH-FOOD digest 229

From the Jewish Food recipe list. Downloaded from Glen's MM Recipe Archive, .

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