Recipe for a Cheering Up

A couple of weeks ago, Thatboy asked me out on a date. He does this from time to time, and gets really excited about it. Like a schoolboy almost. This time he wanted to go ice skating at the Hotel Del Coronado and look at lights. All week he would give me a goofy grin and ask if I was excited about Friday night. (Usually I would reply by giving him my most innocent look and asking what was going to happen Friday night.)

Friday about 3pm I got a text from Thatboy that he had fallen down some stairs at work and sprained his ankle. He was still up for dinner and lights, but skating was probably out. SERIOUSLY? I informed him there would be no dinner and no lights. He had one thing to look forward to that evening, and that was sitting on the couch with his leg elevated. Well, that and a trip to Urgent Care which was ever so fun.

Thatboy was understandably disappointed. And he's not great about just sitting and elevating. Worst patient ever. But you know what makes him happy? Chocolate. So in honor of Thatboy, I bring you three different recipes for chocolate cake (all from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, natch.)

The most important part of chocolate cake is obviously the chocolate. And all of these recipes call for melting chocolate at some stage of the baking process. I know I've told you about how to create your very own at home double broiler, but now you can see it for your very own self!

First, put your ingredients in a heatsafe bowl. You can use pyrex, I use stainless steel. Then you'll place this over a simmering saucepan of water. You want to make sure that the saucepan is smaller than the bowl, so the bowl sits in it without touching the water.

Then just heat and stir and voila, instant melted chocolate!

Now that you've mastered that technique, let's put it to good use, onward to chocolate cake!

This Huntington Chocolate Cake is one of the lightest I've had. The chocolate flavor is definitely not overwhelming which is perfect for me, not as good for Thatboy. He also didn't appreciate the Confectioners' sugar frosting but it's a great one to add to your repertoire as it makes a fantastic glaze.

If you want a more chocolatey cake, this chocolate buttermilk cake is going to be right up your alley. Chocolate cake with thick, creamy, chocolate frosting. Thatboy was definitely a bigger fan of this one.

And next is the Goldilocks of chocolate cake - this one is JUST right. I seriously love this cake and I don't even love chocolate. There's really something about devil's food cake. And it's rich enough, that you don't even miss the chocolate frosting. This confectioners' frosting is creamier than the other one, because of the addition of. . . wait for it. . . cream. This cake was so good I even froze a couple pieces to save for later.