Cake Time
A friend asked me to delightful impromptu dinner party last week – you know the kind we all had before Covid. It was just so much fun – it felt like a refresher course in life. Dinner was marvelous, company was marvelous, and I was too full and happy for dessert. But my friend Susan had made a cake and how could anyone be so mean as to not give it a little taste — plus I love cake.
In fact, my feelings for cake run deep. In junior high when we were all learning to be groovy, we acquired posters with supposedly life altering quotes accompanied by blurry pictures. I bought one that had a picture of a dad holding a kid with a dog walking along side. The quote was presented in elaborate script, and I thought it said “Cake Time.” I loved that idea of walking along looking for cake. Later when I took the much-loved poster to college a friend pointed out that it actually said, “Take Time.” (See poster below – I found a copy online.) Well, that ruined a perfectly good poster. Take time for what? What a dumb quote – now “Cake Time” – that has some deep meaning.
And so, we made cake time after dinner and it was hands down one of the best cakes ever. It was a dark rich dense slab of chocolate that no normal person could resist. A morning spent obnoxiously texting, emailing, and calling finally yielded results and here is the amazing thing — the recipe has five ingredients and flour is not one of them! No wonder it was so rich.
Not only is this one of the best cakes in the world it’s one of the easiest. I made it even easier than my friend Susan who carefully added one egg at a time by throwing the eggs all in a bowl together and whipping it up. You probably have everything in your pantry and fridge to make this right now and you should. Thank you, Susan. I would credit the recipe, but Susan said it came from an old magazine and she had been making it for years. I will be making it for years to come. Enjoy!
*(with a couple of direction changes for those of us who can be challenged by big words and things that are hard to do)
Ingredients
8 oz of bittersweet chocolate.
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
1 ½ cups of sugar
6 eggs
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
(A small addition of about ¼ tsp salt is optional – I like salt and chocolate.)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Lightly spray with baking spray (or butter and flour) a 10” springform pan
OR
( I used) two regular 6” pans and reduced cooking time by 5 minutes.
Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or a pan set over simmering water) stirring until smooth.
While chocolate cools, mix eggs and sugar in a large bowl until well blended.
Add cooled chocolate a little at a time stirring with each addition.
Whisk in cocoa powder until just blended and pour batter into prepared pan(s).
Bake until top has formed a thin crust & a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out with moist crumbs adhering, 35 to 40 minutes. (It is easy to overcook! It’s best when it is still pretty moist in the center with just a little jiggling)
Cool cake in pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove side of pan. Invert cake onto a plate & reinvert cake onto rack to cool completely.
Serve plain or top with whipped cream and garnish of choice.
