Chocolate Cake

October 17, 2008 | By | COMMENTS

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Ladies and gentleman, this has been a rough week. My flu mutated into a cold and then back into a flu again. I hardly have the energy to type these words, I’m rapidly fading. Yet, I am filled with hope as I harken back to two weeks ago when I made the chocolate cake you see above.

It comes from The Barefoot Contessa (click here for the recipe) and it’s the Platonic ideal of a chocolate cake. It’s moist and rich and complex (with hidden coffee flavors); I ate way more of it than I should have. Perhaps my flu is punishment for gluttony?

The startling thing about making a chocolate cake is how many people inevitably come over to eat it. Let’s call it my Field of Dreams theory about baking: “If you bake it, they will come.” Before I knew it: Patty, Lauren, Stella, and James were there eating chocolate cake during the Vice-Presidential debate; then Lisa and a choreographer and dancers and my friend Josh were eating it too.

This chocolate cake is like a people magnet, which is why I’m posting it today: Friday. If you make this cake this weekend, I bet you’ll have a better weekend than if you don’t make this cake. In fact, I’ll make you a deal: make this cake and keep a camera handy. When the people come to eat your chocolate cake, take a picture of yourself with your friends and your cake and upload it to The Amateur Gourmet group on Flickr (click here). Anyone who uploads a picture, will be featured on the main page next week. You’ll be a chocolate cake star!

As for me, I plan to curl up on the couch and dream of chocolate cakes past, present and future. Perhaps one day I’ll have the energy to make another one; until then, I’ll be dreaming of yours. Happy weekend baking.

Tags: ,

Categories: Cakes, Desserts, Recipes

  • Michael Albano

    Feel better Adam! And thanks for the cake recipe.

  • Cheryl

    Make sure you are not dehydrated Adam. That makes you feel really sick like you have the flu. If you are not drinking a lot of fluids have Craig go out and buy you sports drinks with electrolytes!

    One time I missed 5 whole days of work because I got sick with a cold, then started vomiting and then got dehydrated…I think I would have only missed 3 days had I been able to stay hydrated. Take care~~Love your blog…

  • http://ive-never.blogspot.com Crystal

    Ew to the post above!

    As for the cake… made it! Just what I needed tonight, thanks. It’s delicious, but I’d definitely double the frosting recipe, I barely had enough. Posted info on my blog, I’ll add pics to your group shortly.

  • http://2girlsinthekitchen.blogspot.com Randi

    This cake won me first place at our towns Fall fair years ago. I know it as Hershey’s Black Magic Cake!! I’ve been making it for years. I wonder where Mrs. Beaty got the recipe?

  • Craig

    Fortunately, or unfortunately, gluttony is its own punishment. You must have done something else :)

  • http://www.myfirstkitchen.net My First Kitchen

    Craig’s line is funny. I hope you feel better, too. I’m new here; StumbleUpon led me to you, and I’m a bit disappointed in myself that I didn’t find you on my own much earlier than this. I’m looking forward to coming back.

  • http://www.PotatoPatchRecipes.com Potato Chef

    Adam I also have a cold (fingers crossed not mutating to the flu).

    Choclate cake is the best. It is my favorite. I had a choclate cake at my wedding. I can hear the hisses and boos, but I don’t care.

    The only thing negative about choclate cake, at least for me, is that I can’t stop eating it.

  • http://www.kimberlykv.blogspot.com Kimberly

    Ina’s Chocolate Buttercream Frosting is the best chocolate frosting I’ve ever tasted in my life. It’s slightly different than the recipe you posted. It’s got bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate, espresso, and rum. How could that be bad?

    http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tiered-chocolate-buttercream-cake-recipe/index.html

  • http://www.justfoodnow.wordpress.com justfoodnow

    Another post that amuses, interests and enthralls. You write so well and lift many a sad Sunday evening!

    Chocolate is very good for you and the Aztecs knew it, so why shouldn’t we just learn from them and succumb ….. and succumb ….. and succumb ….

    Feel better soon.

  • http://www.whiskblog.com/ Shari

    That cake looks heavenly!

  • http://marisblogs.wordpress.com Maris

    I wish I had seen this post before Sunday night otherwise I sure would have made a cake…if not for any other reason, because it’s a good excuse to make a cake :)

    Hope you’re feeling better!

  • http://baltimoresnacker.blogspot.com John

    I just saw this post on Sunday night, so (needless to say) I did not make this cake this weekend. Though I DID make a white cake, not from scratch but I “zhuzh’d” it up, and made a favorite vanilla buttercream frosting to go with it. I was having a bad day and the icing was too hard (more milk should’ve gone in, yes) and the cake not hard enough so as I frosted the damn thing it kept ripping that microscopic top layer off. The end result was NOT pretty, but it sure was good.

    Hope you feel better!

  • beth

    don’t know why she has to have raw egg in the frosting. yuk

  • http://kellyspinkapron.blogspot.com Kelly

    Yum. Chocolate Cake. i could have that for breakfast, and knowing it was Ina’s recipe, I’m sure it was amazing.

  • http://pithyandcleaver.blogspot.com Maggie

    Looks like a delicious cake! Sorry you’re sick!

  • http://lovefeasttable.com/blog/ lovefeast table

    I hope you’re feeling better! On Sunday, I had actually just pulled out all the ingredients to make a sour cream chocolate cake for my friend Derek’s birthday. Then, my friend Chris Ann, called an let me know about your challenge…I shifted gears and made the recipe you posted…I must say, it will be a new favorite! Derek and everyone else loved it!

    Thanks for the tip!

    kristin

  • http://steeez.com Eeez

    I LOVE Ina’s new revamped Barefoot Contessa show. Over the weekend she made filet mignon with sauteed wild mushrooms, onion rings and gorgonzola sauce. I had a heart attack just looking at it.

    No one does comfort food like Ina!

  • Colleen

    I made this cake on Sunday (I’ll post my pic to your flickr group). The icing recipe definitely does not make enough. I had to make another half batch (dividing the egg yolk was fun!) just to cover the cake. I’ll double it next time but I was out of chocolate at that point. It’s a wonderful cake. I had it for dinner last night and breakfast this morning and thank God it’s all gone!

    Beth, I wondered about the egg yolk too but it made the icing so silky. I wouldn’t leave it out.

  • Derek’s wife

    I was at the “Birthday Lovefeast” & the Chocolate Cake was wonderful!!!! Good food, Good times & Good friends!!Oh, yeah & LOTS OF BAKED IN LOVE!!!

  • Michael J. Wheal

    I didn’t use the frosting recipe, but the Barefoot cake recipe is easy to make and fantastic- a consistant, moist and delicious cake.