You know, that is so probable it’s practically a given; good call.
My Ma’s recipe is so different than the first Google entry for “'sponge cake” that it makes me wonder what the hell I’ve been baking all these years.
Recipe on request (I need to go verify the ingredients before I relay them).
Well said! I chuckled.
This is also an old recipe, by the way. My grandmother’s maid made it for every grand child’s birthday. We all called it “Mary’s chocolate cake”.
The recipe says it will bubble, but it doesn’t, much. It kinda “gloops” a little.
I mentioned it to my wife, and she wants the recipe. Would it be easy to share?
Sure. There are two things you should know about it:
the cook didn’t really trust this new-fangled chemical leavening, and a lot of the rise is from whipping the egg whites.
it’s topped with fudge frosting. That is, after you make the frosting, it hardens into fudge. It’s fabulous, and the grand kids all loved it. For years, the Thanksgiving story that had to be told was about how one cousin had saved a chunk of her frosting to eat last, and another cousin stole it. But i offered a slice to a friend, once, who took one bite and said, “too bad about the frosting”. So if you think that frosting needs to be soft and sticky, this isn’t for you. (It is soft when you make it. I always make sure to give the cake enough time to rest for the frosting to set before i serve it.)
And… I think i want to use a laptop for actually copying the recipe.
Cake:
1/2 cup cocoa (we use Hersheys, because she did, and you don’t change old family recipes if you can avoid it. But make sure to use pure cocoa powder, and not some sweetened stuff designed to mix with water and drink.)
3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups cake flour. (the original recipe says to sift 4 times before measuring, but I weighed it at 195-200 grams, and sometimes just weigh it out and sift once, now.)
1/8 tsp salt
3 egg whites (nb: the frosting takes 2 yolks)
Preheat oven to 350F
Dissolve cocoa in boiling water and allow to cool. (I do this in a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup)
Cream butter and sugar together until the sugar really melts in.
Add cocoa mixture and vanilla.
Mix baking soda into sour cream, and add both to butter mixture. It will fizz (maybe barely, but that’s what it says)
Add flour and salt which have been sifted together. Beat thoroughly.
Then fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Add a little egg white first, fold, then fold in remainder.
Bake in two layers in 9" pans in a moderate oven. The original recipe said for 20 minutes, but my grandmother said it took her 30 minutes, and I sometimes give it as much as 35. I suspect that was a typo.
Cool before removing from pans, and then frost with fudge frosting.
Fudge Frosting:
4oz Bakers unsweetened chocolate, cut into pieces
1/2 cup cold milk
2 egg yolks, well beaten
1.5 cups (320g) caster sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Add chocolate to milk in small (1.5 quart) pan and place over a low flame. Cook until mixture is smooth and blended, stirring constantly. (It’s important not to burn the chocolate. You can probably do this step in a microwave, but I want the saucepan for the step, so I just stand there and stir._
Beat egg yolks with 3 Tbsps of the sugar until it’s pale and ribbony.
Add remaining sugar to chocolate mixture and cook until smooth.
Add egg mixture and and butter to chocolate and cook 1 minute more.
Remove from heat and add vanilla.
Beat until thick and creamy. This may take a long time. (I use a stand mixer and walk away. Basically, I keep beating it until it has cooled to room temp.)
Do not frost cake until cake has thoroughly cooled.