ChocoBerry Cake

Like I wasn't enough of a glutton for desserts before, now I live with my sister-in-law who begs me to make cake practically every weekend. So sometimes I do. Like this:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups Earth Balance Margarine
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, broken into chunks
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Step One: Chocolatize. In a double boiler over medium (or saucepan over low) heat, combine the butter and water, stir until the butter melts. Add the sugar and the cocoa and cook, stirring constantly, until they both dissolve. (About 10-15 minutes over boiling water.) Add the chocolate chunks and stir until melted, then remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Step Two: Batter up. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Farenheit, make sure the oven rack is in the middle of the oven. In a medium-large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly stir in the chocolate mixture and stir until the batter is smooth. Add vanilla extract.

Step Three: Completely baked. Butter and flour an 8-inch cake pan and line the bottom with a circle of wax paper. Using a circle of wax paper on the bottom of the cake pan is an irreplaceable step. It rocks. I sprinkled a little brown sugar down there, too, for funnsies. Pour in batter and tap the pan a few times against the counter to break up any air bubbles and make sure the batter distributes evenly. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Top your cake however you like. Here's what I did:

Strawberry Frosting
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tbsp. Earth Balance margarine
• One cup frozen strawberries
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Step One: Strawberry. Thaw out the strawberries (I ran them under hot water) until mushy. Squeeze out strawberry juice using a cheesecloth. Add strawberry juice to butter.

Step Two: Frosting. Add powdered sugar to the strawberry butter mixture until you reach desired consistency.

Then I sliced a bunch of strawberries and arranged them on top. I had fresh blueberries lying around so I tossed some of them on there. It made for a messy but very yummy cake.


No cake for puppies.