Grandma Rose's Not-So-Simple Chocolate Cake

Before I was born, my parents took a trip up to Portland, Oregon for a convention my Dad attended. There they fell in love with the beautiful scenery, the mild temperatures and the delicious cinnamon rolls at Rose's Bakery. In fact, they enjoyed the cinnamon rolls so much that they returned every morning and even bought the restaurant's cookbook.

Fast forward about 18 years. While searching for a cake recipe one afternoon, I stumbled across a strange, yellow cookbook. Entitled "Grandma Rose's Book of Sinfully Delicious Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Cheesecakes, Cake Rolls and Pastries", it intrigued me. For the next two years, I would flip through the book, toying with the idea of trying out one of the recipes, but never actually going through with it. Now, on the brink of turning twenty, I finally decided to buck up and make something-- the whole book in fact.

Don't worry, I'm not going too Julie and Julia over this project. I'm not setting myself a time limit or anything like that. Heck, I can barely remember to post on here in a timely fashion! But I am really excited about this and I hope it works out. I'm not sure how long it will take-- there's a lot of recipes in this little book and I'm headed back to college in a month.

So to begin, I made the very first recipe in the book-- a Simple Chocolate Cake. It was simple...for the most part. However, I have to admit that I messed up on a couple of the details. But let's dive on in.

There's three parts to this recipe: the cake, frosting, and a glaze.

For the cake you'll need:
1/2 cup sweet butter, softened
1 3/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 9" tube pan. Place the butter in a medium sized mixing bowl. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt and add to the butter.

Next add the sour cream and mix until the flour is just dampened.

Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed for two minutes.

Mix in the egg yolks, vanilla, and melted chocolate.

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Be careful not to overbeat! That's a bad habit of mine and it can really make a difference in the texture of a cake. Gently fold them into the batter.

Pour into the tube pan and bake about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. When cool, remove from pan.







The next step is to make the frosting. For this you will need:

1/2 cup melted sweet butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup light cream (half and half)

Combine all of your ingredients and let stand for 5 minutes. Spread over the top of the cake and place under broiler. Heat topping until lightly brown and bubbly; watch carefully so it doesn't burn. I made the mistake of letting it get too brown. It doesn't even take five minutes for it to cook so check every minute or so. Let cool.

Finally, you can make your glaze.

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon water

Combine chocolate chips and corn syrup with water in top of a double boiler. Place over hot, not boiling, water until chocolate is melted and pour over the frosting.


My final mistake was to not let the chocolate thin out enough. When I poured it over the cake, it didn't form a glaze so much as a chocolate stripe down the center.

Well, it may not have been pretty, but it came out delicious! My family held a fish fry the night I made this and I didn't even have time to take a picture of the inside before it was eaten up! It's a very rich and dense cake, so a little goes a long way. I suggest pairing it with a strong cup of coffee because the sweetness can be a bit overwhelming.

Good luck!
Rosie