[ my one bowl chocolate cake ]

IT'S MY guy's birthday tomorrow so it's time for his usual chocolate birthday cake. I thought I'd share my recipe because it really is a heavenly cake that you won't be able to resist. And everything is done in one bowl which makes it really easy.

Lisa's one bowl chocolate cake
This is a delicious, moist, fudgey cake - it doesn't rise up super high since it's a bit denser than those ultra fluffy boxed mixes. But once you've tried this, you'll never make a mix again.

what you need

1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup boiling water

how to

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 2 9" pans.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer.

Stir in boiling water. Batter will be thin.

Pour evenly into prepared pans.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans to a rack to fully cool.

Rich chocolate frosting
Time to frost! If you are tight for time or lazy, you can always use some store-bought icing. But this icing is super good so it's worth trying:

what you need

1 cup butter softened
4 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk {or maybe a bit more}

how to

In large bowl, cream butter. Gradually beat in icing sugar, cocoa and vanilla. Add enough milk until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Makes plenty for a 2 layer cake. The longer you beat it, the creamier and fluffier it gets.

Frost and decorate as desired. If I'm not writing on the cake, I'll often put a few chocolate curls on top by running a potato peeler across a chocolate bar.

Yum!

lisa