Dreaming of Chocolate Cake

When you find out that you can’t eat things with gluten in them anymore, each day that goes by brings another thing that you suddenly remember that you can no longer have. Things like good old fashioned southern style chicken and dumplings. Fried chicken. Strawberry Shortcake. French Toast. And Chocolate Cake. You know, the yellow layer cake and the gritty fudgy chocolate frosting like your mama used to make?

I was sitting here today wishing for a piece of chocolate cake, so I did a Google search for recipes. The one I chose is from Allrecipes, a website that has recipes for just about anything you could want. This one had 5 star ratings from everyone who had tried it. Click on the link for the recipe.

I do not have any round layer pans, so I used a sheet cake pan. There was just a little too much batter for the size pan I used. This batter was the consistency of other “regular” cake batters I have made in the past and poured into the pan easily. The recipe said to bake for 25 minutes. I don’t know if it is because I am currently living at a high altitude, or if it very dry here, or if it was the odd shape of the pan, or if my RV oven is “off” on the temperature, or a combination of all of the above, but I wound up baking it for 34 minutes.

The frosting recipe came from my mother. I like it because it is sugary and gritty, just like I remember from when I was a little girl.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/8 cup cocoa powder
3/8 cup evaporated milk (no water added)
5/8 cup of margarine or butter

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool.

Beat until thick enough to spread but not too thick or it will turn to fudge. Spread on cake.

This was delish! FabGrandpa said it was really good. I cut us each a piece, then refrosted the edge so I can take it to a party tomorrow night.