Boozy Chocolate Cake
This cake graces the table at the Farm for all birthdays, break-ups, post-fight make-ups, or for a general Sunday afternoon. It is what every cake should be: moist, rich, and chocolate.
And here is how it’s made:
One and three quarters cup pastry flour is sifted with three quarters cup good cocoa powder (the Farmer’s Wife uses either Hershey or Callebaut), one teaspoon baking powder, two teaspoons baking soda, and one teaspoon salt. This bowl is set aside for now, while a half cup softened butter is creamed with two cups sugar of the granulated variety for a good three minutes until all is light and fluffy. Two room temperature eggs are added to the sugar/butter concoction and left to beat for another three minutes. While that’s going, a cup of half and half is measured out and one tablespoon apple cider vinegar is mixed in, stirring well. This is left to set until it starts to look a bit lumpy—which should be right around the time the butter/sugar/eggs are looking creamy and lovely. The mixer is turned off, and the half and half mixture stirred in by hand. Just a bit. Trust me. If you go pouring it right in and turn on your mixer, you’ll end up wearing half of it. Don’t ask me how I know. Just picture a Farmer’s Wife coated in soured milk. When it’s a bit mixed in, the beaters are set a whirling, until all is smooth as silk. Now, here’s when that bowl of flour/cocoa is needed. That gets stirred in by hand a bit too before the mixer is started once more. It’s let go just until blended. Now, here’s where it gets good. A third cup whiskey of the Jack Daniels variety is blended with two thirds cup boiling water and poured into the bowl where the rest of the ingredients are just sitting there waiting. Again, it’s mixed in by hand a bit first before turning on the mixer. It should look and smell something like a dream right about now. The batter is poured either into a nine by thirteen-inch pan or two buttered, floured nine-inch round pans, depending on if the Farmer’s Wife wants a layered cake or to just eat it straight. Both are luscious, although one does require slightly more work.
The pans are placed into a pre-heated three-hundred-and-fifty-degree oven, and baked—thirty-five to forty minutes for the nine by thirteen, a little less for the two nine-inch rounds. The Farmer’s Wife likes to test her cakes by dipping a toothpick in the center of the cake, if it comes out clean, it’s done.
Once they are, the cakes are taken out and left to cool. If she’s making the nine by thirteen cake, it’s left in the pan and frosted just as it is. If it’s a layer cake, she pops them out of the pans and lets them cool on a wire rack. And then it’s on to the frosting!
Fudgy Frosting:
A half cup sugar is placed in a pan and two tablespoons good cocoa are added (over the years different kinds have been tried, and it has been found the variety really doesn’t matter, so long as it is not Dutch process. The Farmer’s Wife has chosen to use Hershey for herself). This is stirred. Two tablespoons butter go in next, followed by one tablespoon corn syrup. A quarter cup half and half and a dash of salt finishes the job. The pan is placed over heat and let come to a boil, and continued to let boil for about three minutes, stirring here and there. After the three minutes are up, the heat is turned off and the pan left for a bit. One and a half ounces of very good chocolate (chopped) is added and stirred until all is smooth. The Farmer’s Wife has played with this, too. Here the kind does matter. She has found the darker, the better, although a good Milk Chocolate Hershey Bar does rather nicely as well. A splash of vanilla is stirred in, finishing the job. If the cake is of the nine by thirteen variety, this is poured over and spread with the back of a spoon until all is coated. If a layer cake, then one of the cakes is set on a plate and a third of the glaze is poured over. The second cake is set on top and the rest of the fudgy goodness is poured over all and allowed to drizzle down the sides. Yum.
Now you’re all set for your next birthday or post-break-up crying fit.
