Baking for One: Chocolate Cake

I really wanted to bake a little something for myself. Yong doesn't really eat a lot of sweets because he was tortured as a child and only fed fruit after meals. He actually prefers the fruit now...so when I make cookies and cakes he will politely have one piece and the rest will either be devoured by me in a midnight frenzy or I will have the entirely soul-crushing task of dumping it in the trash.

So I came up with the idea to adapt the recipes for smaller batches. I want to find a very moist (but not very dense) cake recipe. I read something on chowhound about adding shredded canned beets to the recipe. I will give that a try later. First I am going to try this "Midnight Madness" cake from the Hershey's website and see how it does on it's own.

Ingredients


* 3/4 c. sugar
* 1/2 c. flour (I used whole wheat)
* 1/2 c. cocoa powder
* 1 tsp. baking soda
* 1/2 tsp. baking powder
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 1 egg
* 1/2 c. buttermilk or sour milk* (I used rice milk and vinegar)
* 1/2 c. strong black coffee OR 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee plus 1 cup boiling water
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour pans.



2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (Batter will be thin).


Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

4. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost as desired. Yields 5 to 6 servings.



* To sour milk: Use 1 tablespoon white vinegar plus milk to equal 1 cup.



It came out much better than I expected. It was so moist and chocolaty. There is a healthy amount of cocoa powder in it. I will use this one from now on. I may try doing something with the beetroot later when I am bored but I am completely satisfied with this recipe. I ate it without frosting or powdered sugar--I just sliced some strawberries and put them on top.