Chocolate Cake- My First But How Can That Be?

How can that be? Oh it be and I have no excuse!!

A couple of days ago I watched the movie Julie and Julia, and I thought that it was for the most part a pretty good movie. Meryl Streep was stupendous in this movie, she is great with accents and in this one she is brilliant. Amy Adams plays Julie and she is in modern times who starts a blog about Julia Child’s recipe book and starts out to do a challenge of a recipe a day until all the recipe’s in Julia Child’s book is done, a huge challenge that she is determined to do no matter what.

I never watched Julia Child's or never read any of her cookbooks but the biographical parts to the movie in regards to Julia Child's was very interesting such as, when she got married she didn’t know how to boil an egg, and since at the time she was living in Paris because of her husband’s job, she found herself falling in love with French cuisine, which I am sure isn’t hard to do. The movie pretty much goes from modern times Julie with the challenges of her blog and goes back to Julia’s experiences in cooking school and trying to write a book about French cuisine made for American Women and is trying to get it published. The movie is really more interesting than I am sure I am making it out to be, I know I cannot give justice to it. But the part that inspired me was when at a part in the movie Julie the blogger has a stressful job and she states that no matter what happens at work she can always come home and just mixing chocolate and sugar, and eggs will make everything okay, or something to that effect. This got me thinking that I have never made a cake from scratch. I have always counted on the cake mixes from the supermarkets; I’m such a terrible person and mom, never having made a cake myself.

So I was inspired to make a Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and you know what? It was great. Turned out delicious, I may add. So I am going to share it with you in case you get the urge to make one yourself. It was rather easier than I imagined it would be. Of course the recipe is not my own but I can share it with you anyway. So don’t be too impressed with me but you can be impressed with the recipe because it was easy, and very good. So here is the recipe if you are so inclined to make one yourself. I do know that I will never buy another cake mix again. Turns out everything you need to make a cake is in your cupboard, who’d a thought? And it takes as much energy to make a cake from scratch as one from a cake mix but the taste is so much more delectable.

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa or HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I only use EEVO and it worked out fine)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter 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. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. (Cake may be left in rectangular pan, if desired.)

I really didn't know there was such a thing

 6 TBLS butter or margarine, softened
 2-2/3 cups powdered sugar
 1/2 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa or HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
 1/3 cup milk
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat butter in medium bowl. Add powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with milk, beating to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed). Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.