Weekend Cooking; Homemade Chocolate Cake

Cake on my grandmother's Spode plate

Teenage Boy's birthday was last weekend.  Did I mention he turned 17 and how old that makes me feel?  Well it does. No gray hair to prove it thankfully but there are other less obvious scars.  A long list of joys as well but this cake conversation was not one of them.

Over the years I've made homemade angel food cake topped with strawberry sauce and fresh whipped cream for his birthday until he told me last year how much he disliked angel food cake.  What!? When did this occur??  I have pictures of him grabbing at angel food cake during his early birthdays.  I felt stricken.  How come you didn't tell me this? He gave me a teenage shoulder shrug and a "I'm telling you now."  So much for thinking you know your teenage child.

Even though he's requested less sugar in his life he does love chocolate so I pulled out the best chocolate cake recipe I've ever know and made this cake because it oozes chocolatey-ness.  This cake was made for special occasions and church potlucks when I was growing up.  It hails from a family friend named Alice Bachman (of course) and always been referred to in my family as:

Alice Bachman's Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and then added to 3 T. cocoa and 1 cup HOT water.

Combine sugar and flour and beat in eggs.  Add HOT water/cocoa/butter combination and continue to mix with a wooden spoon or spatula.  Add the buttermilk, soda, and vanilla.  Combine well by hand.  Use butter wrapper to lightly grease 9 x 13-in baking pan.  Pour batter into pan and bake at 350* for 20-25 minutes.

Frosting:
Melt 1 stick of butter (yes, more butter)  in small saucepan.  Add 3 T. cocoa and stir.  Add one box of powdered sugar, 6 T. buttermilk, and 1 tsp. vanilla.  Stir over low heat until smooth.  Pour over cooled cake.  Serve and enjoy.

My dad used to eat this cake in a bowl of milk. I do this now in my favorite small pink bowl in memory of him and Alice and smile, smile, smile as I scoop its deliciousness in.

On my quest to not eat sugar I will be making this rhubarb cake (Smitten Kitchen) solely based on the fact that a friend gave me a big bag of rhubarb just begging to be turned into this big crumb coffee cake.

This cake post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme.  Click her link to find many more food-related posts.

I'm off to garden now which is on my weekend to-do list right after finish WC post by 9 am.  I'm off schedule already.  Hard not to scrap it all and do give in to Heather's temptation.

Have a blessed Cinco de Mayo!