Ghost-Pleasing Chocolate Cake

Ever since Halloween, Emilia has been obsessed with witches and ghosts.  She has been spending a great deal of time running around the house as a witch, using her wooden duck on a stick as a broom with a tiny plastic cat in tow, declaring, 'I'm a witch, mama!'  Alternatively, she has been throwing her beloved blanket on top of her head, and refusing to let us call her Emilia.  'I'm not Emilia!  I'm a ghost now!'  Sometimes she even insists that she is either a witch or a ghost as she sports her Mary Poppins ensemble, 'I'm a Mary Poppins ghost!'  Anyway, you get the idea.

I may have mentioned that when we saw Grandma and Grandpa (that would be my mom and David) in Oregon a few weeks ago, they came bearing gifts.  It was hilarious, not to mention slightly awesome, having them randomly pull things out, saying 'Oh, honey, we got this for the girl,' or, 'Have you shown her that yet?  Well, what are you waiting for!'  Anyway, one of those 'things' happened to be a book.  And goodness knows we do like a good book around here.  (No, we're not nerds, thank you very much -- just wicked smart intellectuals.  Or something like that anyway.)  The book is called The Bake Shop Ghost by Jacqueline K. Ogburn and illustrated by Marjorie Priceman, and it's fabulous.  We've read it a handful of times now, and each time Emilia points at Miss Cora Lee Merriweather and says either: 'What she is doing?'  Or, 'She a gho-o-o-o-o-st!  The answer to the her question is that Cora Lee is saying 'Get out of my kitchen!', using your scariest voice, of course.  Or that Cora Lee is throwing eggs and making a right-old mess of the place.  Although sometimes she just likes to point at the cat.

The story line goes something like this:  Cora Lee Merriweather is the best baker in town, probably even the state.  Then one day she ups and dies.  The shop is sold, and sold again, and sold again, and then sits empty for a few years.  The ghost of Cora Lee is haunting the shop, and this is why it keeps getting sold.  No baker will stay put and fight with a ghost who keeps scaring the dickens out of them.  Then one day Annie Washington buys the shop, scrubs it all over, and sets herself up.  Cora Lee tries to run her out, but Annie tells her to stuff it.  Cora Lee then makes a genuine nuisance of herself, causing Annie to ask what she can do to get Cora Lee to leave her alone.  Cora Lee tells her that she must bake her a cake that will bring tears to her eyes, and make her feel full.  And so night after night, Annie tries to do just that.  She makes every kind of cake imaginable.  Just as she is about ready to throw in the towel, she finally manages to hit the nail on the head.  Cora Lee wants a birthday cake.  Once Annie gives her this cake, her eyes get all teary and she declares that she is full.  However, rather than race off to heaven or wherever Cora Lee was planning to go, Annie invites her to stay and be her co-baker.  That's roughly the story, anyway.

On the last page of the book there is a recipe for a ghost pleasing chocolate cake.  It is adapted from Cooks' Illustrated magazine, and everyone knows they're fab.  So on Saturday, while Michael was off at a speaking engagement of sorts, and it poured buckets of dreary rain outside, Emilia and I decided to pull out the cake pans and get to it.  The cake is yummy -- very easy to make, and very easy to eat.  Emilia ate way too much frosting, which caused her to zip up and down the hallways like a bat out of hell, but what can you do sometimes?  She was beyond excited that we'd managed to make a yummy cake that is completely suitable for a ghost.  'That Cora Lee's cake!  She a gho-o-o-o-ost!'  Anyway, I believe it is safe to assume that we will all be having more of the ghost-pleasing cake tonight after dinner -- but only after the girl has had enough of her mama-pleasing dinner.  (Oh, and incidentally I've also discovered that it is an excellent treat to have once the two-year-old goes down for her nap.  But that is not really what we're talking about here, is it?)

Now then, I made a few slight adjustments to the cake.  First, we don't have buttermilk powder, but we do have buttermilk.  So I swapped them out.  But because that added 4 tablespoons of moisture to the cake, I used less water.  The recipe calls for 1 cup water -- I used 1 cup of water, less 4 tablespoons.  See what I mean?  I also tripled the frosting recipe.  Well, actually I did the recipe from Magnolia's cookbook, which is essentially the same, just A LOT more frosting.  Although, Magnolia's calls for milk instead of water, more butter, less sugar, and no salt -- but it is essentially the same...

Ghost-Pleasing Chocolate Cake

Preheat the oven to 325°F.  Butter and line (using parchment) two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine:

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, sifted before measuring

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa

4 tablespoons buttermilk powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

In a medium saucepan, melt over very low heat:

1 ½ sticks (12 tablespoons) of butter

8 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate

Once melted, remove from the heat and add:

1 cup of water

4 beaten eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Now, whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, being very careful not to over mix.  Pour the batter evenly into the cake pans, set them in the middle of the oven, and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until your cake-tester comes out slightly moist with a crumbs on it.  Do not over bake.

Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes or so.  Remove from the pans and let cool completely on a rack.

Easy Frosting

3 cups confectioners' sugar

⅓ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch salt

whatever color of food-coloring you fancy, but just a drop

Combine all the ingredients in your heavy-duty mixer, and beat beat beat (on a lower speed) until it looks nice and fluffy.  (Recipe from The Bakeshop Ghost by Jacqueline K. Ogburn.  Houghton Mifflin, 2005.)