This week on Minnesota Live, I shared the chocolate cake that absolutely defined celebrations (or average weeknights!) during my childhood. This is my mom’s famous chocolate cake – topped with two different frostings. She adapted reach recipe from church cookbooks over the years and has made this for any day worth celebrating.
The cake is made completely in a 9×13 pan which is about as Midwestern as you can get. It’s the craziest cake technique I’ve ever seen and it never fails to shock me when it actually works. Every single time.
A couple of things to note about this cake: this is not a health food. There are five cups of sugar between the cake and frostings here. Proceed with caution. That being said, I use the best quality ingredients I can find and I really think it makes a difference and somehow balances out the intense sweetness. This means grass-fed butter (I like Kerrygold), high quality flour (big fan of Sunrise Flour Mill), avocado oil (over canola or soybean), Dutch process cocoa powder, organic cane sugar and top notch chocolate chips (Guittard milk chocolate is a Susie mandate). And foods that are a joy to make and a joy to eat and are made with real ingredients are absolutely worth indulging in.
Susie’s Chocolate Cake
The Cake:
Gather this:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups white sugar
- 6 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- ¾ cup avocado oil (or another neutral oil)
- 2 cups water
Do this:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a 9×13 ungreased pan (if you have a deeper 9×13 pan, that works best). Make two small holes and one large hole in the dry ingredients. Put the vanilla in one small hole, the vinegar the other small hole and the oil in the large hole. Pour the water over the entire top of the pan. Mix well with a fork but don’t overbeat. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean – 35-40 minutes. Set aside to cool. When completely cooled, add a layer of the white frosting. Put cake in the fridge to cool. Then add the slightly warm (not hot!) fudge frosting layer and return to the fridge. Best served cold!
The White Buttercream Frosting
Gather this:
- ½ cup butter (room temperature)
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp instant vanilla pudding mix
Do this:
Beat all ingredients together in a stand mixer until combined and fluffy.
The Fudge Frosting
Gather this:
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ cup butter
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 oz milk chocolate chips (preferably Guittard)
Do this:
Heat a medium sized saucepan over medium. Add the sugar, butter, milk and vanilla. Bring to a full boil for one minute. Turn off the heat and add chocolate chips, stir until the chocolate chips are melted. Let sit until warm, stir again and spread over the cake.
Making my mom’s famous cake on Minnesota Live with help from my 4 year old son Heathcliff