When I make this cake I always think of my sister. I won’t ever be able to make it and not think of her (unless I’m like 92 and can’t remember my own name but I doubt I’ll be baking cake then so….)
When we were young teenagers, trapped home alone during a snow day, we took to the kitchen! Much to Mother’s dismay. We rarely made anything good in the early days. Like the time we tried to make….I don’t even remember what, but for some reason thought that all measurements were in “cups”. So when it called for ingredients like baking soda and salt, we literally put in a cup of each.
And that girl went on to become a professional baker.
The worst is that we made Mom eat our (cough) dessert (cough).
It’s actually bugging me that I can’t remember what we were trying to bake! Either way it didn’t turn out at all. We threw blueberries into it for good measure. Didn’t help.
BUT this cake is not like that.
On that fateful snow day we followed the recipe properly, whipped this cake up, and forevermore made this cake during a snow day. Often laughing about our first disaster at baking together.
Snow Day Chocolate Cake
You Will Need:
2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
4 tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 cup of mayonnaise – my recipe here. (FYI Miracle Whip works too – that was another snow day experiment)
1 cup of water
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Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a 9″ pan. (I’ve used round or square. This recipe is very easy going.)
Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cocoa powder.
In a separate bowl whisk together the mayonnaise and water. This step will make make you question your sanity in making this recipe. Press on, I promise it’s worth it!
Blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until well blended.
Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean (or press lightly in the middle of the cake. If it springs back it’s ready).
Allow to cool then ice. We’ve used vanilla icing, chocolate icing, or even peanut butter icing. It’s all good!
It’s been almost 15 years since Jess and I baked this cake together, but it will always be “snow day chocolate cake”. Food has a story, y’all. Pay attention to it, those stories are often the best.
Amen.
