chocolate cake!

I sat cross-legged on the floor and gently laid out every single recipe card, reading them and marveling out loud at some of the ingredients or techniques. Naturally, as I read aloud the names of the recipes, I decided the very first one I would have to try would be the chocolate cake and the chocolate frosting. I have made plenty of chocolate cakes in the past and had images of myself wearing an apron and pulling out a beautiful cake then setting it on the counter with a freshly lipsticked smile... yes well that would have been nice but I think Aunt Pearl had other plans.

The recipes for the chocolate cake and frosting are type-written on yellowed, brittle pieces of paper and it became painfully obvious that they were written for someone who was already familiar with the recipe and did not need much direction. Certain key parts of the recipe were missing... things you kind of need to know, like the measurements of the amount of chocolate you will be using, the temperature of the oven and the order in which you should add the ingredients. But I smiled as I pulled out my mixing bowls and wooden spoons anyway. My counters were clean, my hair was pulled back and I was feeling good!

Now fast forward about 30 minutes and you will find my hair disheveled and laying over my shoulder, the front of me is splattered with flour and batter and I am not smiling. For starters, I have no idea what the recipe means by "4 squares of chocolate" because the size of a square will be completely different depending on what chocolate you buy. So I guessed, and I also guessed that by "sweet milk" she meant sweetened condensed milk and just crossing my fingers that this was correct. But the real trouble came when I got to the frosting. The recipe reads like this:

3 squares chocolate
12 marshmallows
1/4 cup water
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp butter

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melt the marshmallows on fire slowly, add 2 cups sifted confectioners sugar to above mixture, also vanilla.

The first problem came when I looked at the ingredients and made my grocery list. After returning home I noticed the elusive "confectioners sugar" that sneaks up on you in the procedure. I didn't have any so I decided to blend regular sugar in the blender to make powdered sugar... it sounded easy when I said it in my head. I'm all for doing things by hand but I recommend just going to the store and buying it. The second problem came when I melted the marshmallows, unsure of the size of the kind she was using, and then started to add the rest of the ingredients. Somehow after all of the work I went through to get it, I forgot the powdered sugar! So my frosting looked... well not like frosting at all. I was getting really frustrated and was about to eat the cake without frosting when I realized what I had done and added in the sugar.

The end result? Well let's just say I didn't invite anyone over to share it with me. My "powdered sugar" was still too grainy and made a gritty frosting and I think I over-mixed my cake batter because I ended up with a dense brownie like cake instead of the fluffy chocolate cake I was hoping for. But the good news is I realized that Aunt Pearl knew what she was doing and I can't just mindlessly follow the typed words; I will actually have to think about what I am doing! The challenge gives me a little thrill and I have already picked my next 2 recipes for a small group of girls I will be inviting over for coffee.

Even though the first recipe wasn't exactly a success, I still enjoyed my results! It is exciting to cook from something other than a glossy cookbook. I can almost taste a certain personality in this recipe that you don't find in generic Food Network recipes. What the personality is I am not quite sure of yet, but maybe the next few cakes will reveal it to me! And once I have mastered the sweet stuff... it is on to some of these barely legible, strange dinner recipes I have never heard of. Recipes with things like "from Mary" or with small grocery lists written at the top of them.

Bring it on Aunt Pearl!