Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cake

I have found my Cake Recipe. It tastes better than a mix, has no scary ingredients (anybody else have nightmares after reading Omnivore's Dilemma?), and goes from cupboard to oven in about 7 minutes. It's an oil cake so there's no Crisco-induced guilt and no softening of butter. It is insanely moist and chocolate-y without being too dense or fudgy. Plus, it left my entire family in a crumby stupor, leaning back in their chairs sporting chocolate-y half-smiles.

This time, I brushed it lightly with a simple syrup and scattered drained pie filling cherries over the sweetened, whipped, cream between and on top for a Black Forest-esqe cake. (Which, if I may say so, made the prettiest cake to ever emerge from my kitchen.)

Next time I might top simply with powdered sugar (although whipped cream is hard to beat as a frosting, although it doesn't keep well in the fridge.)



If you find yourself reaching for a cake mix time after time, because it's easier, save your money and pick up a can of cocoa next time at the store instead (this baby calls for a whopping cup and a half) and impress all your friends and family. (Or you could be like us and impress your neighbors too. They were the happy recipients of our leftovers, in a last-ditch attempt to save my waist line.)

So go! Go! Make a cake, and make someone happy today.

Recipe originally found here

Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Makes 2 eight-inch square or 3 eight-inch round layers.

• Unsalted butter, for pans
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pans
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter round or square cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment, and dust with cocoa. (I simply sprayed my pans with this, and it worked great.)
2. Into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, stir in eggs, 1 1/2 cups warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla until smooth, about 3 minutes.
3. Divide batter among prepared pans. Bake, rotating once, until tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes for 8-inch layers, depending on amount of batter.
4. Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely, right side up on rack.