At our house, we have a birthday just a few days after Christmas. Twenty-Six years ago as we approached the holiday season and my son’s first birthday, my husband and I made a pact. First, the Christmas tree would come down by the 26th and a birthday tree would go up. Second, the presents for the birthday boy would be bought long before his Christmas presents so that there was no way that low inventory would affect his birthday. Said presents would be wrapped and placed under the tree for the days building up to his birthday. Lastly, there would be no combining of presents. He would never hear the words, “This is for Christmas and your birthday”. We wanted his birthday to be individual and unique and something he would look forward to as Christmas Day waned.
Here’s a snippet of the tree. *Side note: we like to write on our birthday balloons. We write funny things, serious things and things that make no sense at all.
We should probably get on to Fudgy Chocolate Cake. This is such a great chocolate cake recipe. It’s one that you will use over and over again in a variety of ways. Today I used it in a simple 9X13 pan and frosted it with white buttercream frosting because, well, that is one of Jake’s favorite things. This recipe works great in a 9X13 pan, 2 round pans, 2 small square pans or made into cupcakes. You will love the texture and the density of this chocolate cake.
** If your homemade cake falls a little in the middle, don’t stress! It means that it is not poofy and crumbly, it’s deeply chocolatey and most assuredly homemade. If you start adding a bunch of cake flour, then you are going to end up with a “box” type cake. Embrace the small divot in the middle of the cake and use it for a reservoir of frosting! Honestly, this cake doesn’t sink that much, but it is true that a lighter cake doesn’t really sink and a deep fudgy one struggles just a bit to stay well-formed in the middle during the last bit of baking. Realizing that it might dip in the middle is kind of like that moment of epiphany when you realize that your laundry is never done because you are, at that very moment, wearing the next batch of laundry. It’s liberating, really. Go ahead and try recalibrating your oven if you have the patience, mess with the leavening if you want, but in the end just enjoy the fact that your homemade cake tastes completely homemade.
Happy Birthday Jake! I love you quite a bit!
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup baking cocoa
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup warm water
- Frosting
- Sprinkles
- **This cake can be enhanced if you have 1 tablespoon of espresso powder. Not necessary to make this great cake but you may want to try it on some occasion. I get mine at King Arthur Flour.
- Prepare baking pans as desired. This recipe works well in a 9X13 pan as well as 8-inch rounds, 8-inch square pans or cupcake tins. If you are going to release the cake for decorating, grease and flour the pans well or use parchment paper for the bottom of the pans, greasing and flouring the sides adequately.
- Preheat oven to 350°
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine all dry ingredients.
- Pulse by turning the machine off and on again.
- Add oil, buttermilk, eggs and water.
- Mix at medium speed for about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary to combine the ingredients smoothly.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake at 350° for approximately 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool completely before turning out of the pan for frosting and decorating.
- Throw on those sprinkles. They just sing "Happy Anything"!