It
was cold yesterday and rain confined us to the farmhouse, so I decided to
experiment with a chocolate cake recipe from Ina’s box. I chose one labeled
“Ada’s Devil’s Food, July 2, 1937.” The date is just right.
Here’s
the recipe as Ina wrote it out:
2
cups sifted flour (Swan’s Down preferred)
2
¾ tsp. baking powder, level
Salt
4
tbsp cocoa, or use 3 squares chocolate
1
½ cups sugar
2/3
cup shortening, butter preferred
Break
3 eggs in bowl, beat well
Add
to sugar and shortening and beat well.
Add
1 tsp vanilla
¾
cup sweet milk
That’s
it. And it was written all over the card with no organization. So, the first
thing I did was to re-write it as follows:
2
cups sifted flour (cake flour?)
2
¾ tsp baking powder
½
tsp salt
4
tbsp cocoa (or 3 squares baking chocolate)
1
½ cups sugar
2/3
cup shortening (butter preferred)
3
beaten eggs
¾
cup sweet milk
Cream
sugar and butter. Add beaten eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add sifted dry
ingredients alternately with ¾ cup sweet milk. Bake in 9x13 pan at 350 for
35-40 minutes. For layers, bake 30-35 minutes.
And
here’s what I did:
·
I
sifted regular flour and then measured two cups. Then I added the baking
powder, salt, and cocoa (Hershey’s Special Dark) and sifted twice more -- a retro practice, you know.
·
I
creamed the butter and the sugar and added ¾ cup egg substitute -- a concession
to the modern diet. I forgot the vanilla.
·
At
about this point, I questioned that 4 tablespoons of cocoa would substitute in
chocolate intensity for 3 squares of baking chocolate and decided to check a
cookbook (Betty Crocker’s Baking Classics, 1979.) [I know – why don’t I just
use the cookbook?] Betty’s chocolate cake called for 2/3 cup cocoa, so I
increased the amount I used to 2/3 cup.
·
I
blended the sifted dry ingredients into the sugar mixture alternating with ¾
cup canned milk. (The canned milk was in the fridge and needed to be used.)
·
The
baking time per pan size I also learned from the Betty Crocker recipe.
Ina’s
recipe card does not include a frosting, but there’s one with Betty’s recipe
and one on the cocoa can.
Most
all the chocolate cake recipes in Ina’s box are called “Devil’s Food,” but as I
suspected, most of them don’t fit Wikipedia’s definition. They’re chocolate
cakes but not necessarily Devil’s Food.
Verdict:
The cake seemed a little dry. I probably should have cut back a bit on the
flour when I increased the cocoa powder. And I could probably cut back five
minutes on the baking time. However, I frosted it and we like it.
On
my next try, I will use cake flour, 3 squares baking chocolate, increase the
salt to one teaspoon, and remember the vanilla. If it’s a success, I’ll write
out the recipe for use at our summer celebration (July 14) and attribute it to
Ina’s neighbor, Ada Plank, whose house sat right at the bottom of Plank’s
Pitch. KW
7 comments:
Aaah the days of kitchen experiments. I used to to that in another life. Sometimes I had a 1/2 cup of success. More often I had a full bowl of failure. It was how I learned to cook, though. Today, I fail at meatloaf experiments, which any fool should be able to do.
When I was first married in the mid 1950's, my in-laws loved the story of my peach cobbler blunder (& wouldn't let me forget it). Cooking for 2 with recipes that fed an army meant that you had to cut them down. When I reduced the amount of peaches & not the cake, I produced a sort of peach rock. Of course, I should have cut the cake mixture also. Big lesson learned.
So funny about Ina's recipe with no baking directions. Women of long ago knew all that stuff. How I admire their kitchen savvy.
Swans Down cake flour is suggested in all my old cake recipes, since it's much lighter flour. The recipes often say that you can just use regular flour & sift many times as a substitute.
My goodness, your stove burners are so clean!
Now put this in the dumb question category, if you want. How on earth do the 2 of you eat an entire cake? Do you have it for breakfast, lunch & dinner? Do you freeze some of it?
I wouldn't be afraid to try your meatloaf, Leah. Perhaps you don't cook much any more. I thought of my mother-in-law who drawled, "Honey,if you don't cook, you get so you can't cook."
It's difficult to cook for two, but we like dessert. I frosted half the chocolate cake and froze the other half. I often do that. I bake small pies. Mike exercises vigorously and is otherwise active, so he needs munchies. It's a trial for me because I love munchies and don't need them.
If I make a chocolate cake from scratch I still make the ol' tried and true crazy cake from our high school years. I still remember the first one I every made. I made it at our neighbors's house (we were staying with them when Grandpa Hansen died) and I left the sugar out. Here's a little kitchen hint: a cake without sugar is not a cake.
Sounds like you have a good plan for your next test. :-)
Oh, I'm going to try the "Crazy Cake," too, Chris. We're going to have lots of cakes. I'll be a blimp by the time it's over.
Who took the picture of you and Mike? Nellie?
Hey, Chuck! Mike was playing with his new toy, a flexible tri-pod, that he wound around the back of a chair. With the aid of the camera timer we photographed ourselves. (There are certain concepts Nellie just doesn't get, and the camera is one of them.)
Post a Comment