Spring has sprung,
The grass has riz,
I wonder where the flowers is?
That’s a little poem my dad used to recite when I was a kid. He was also fond of:
Spring has sprung,
The grass is riz,
The bird is on the wing.
Isn’t that absurd?
I always thought the wing was on the bird.
Trouble is, spring hasn’t sprung – not reliably, anyway. As I noted in “Snow and soup,” we’ve been having back-and-forth weather. One day it’s so sunny and mild that it’s 95 degrees in our closed-up greenhouse. Then it drops into the 30s at night and only grudgingly inches back into the 40s the next day.
Today my niece sent a photo of a strawberry blossom in the bed next to her foundation. Woo hoo! And when will our less-protected beds follow suit?
While snow meant soup, sorta-spring has meant cake. I may have a new favorite. And it’s frugal cake.
The thriftiness of the recipe is due to its crucial ingredient: sour milk. Yep, sour milk – not sour cream. The last quart of a gallon started to get a bit sniffy right around its best-by date. The next day it was definitely not to be paired with oatmeal. Generally I use sour milk to make pancakes, waffles or Sour Milk Spice Cake. This time around I wondered if there were a chocolate cake recipe to be had.
Spring forward
There was, so I gave it a try yesterday. The batter looked surprisingly scanty; it barely covered the bottom of the 13-by-9-inch pan. I wondered if The English Kitchen blog had made a mistake. Pretty sure she did made a mistake by calling for an entire tablespoon of vanilla.
Since I’d adjusted the Sour Milk Spice Cake recipe (adding more cinnamon and cloves, plus a sprinkle of ginger), I decided to adjust the chocolate one, too. For starters, I added an extra egg; this is something I do for every cake recipe, as I believe it produces a more tender crumb.
Then I cut the vanilla down to one teaspoon, and the batter tasted great, except maybe a little less chocolatey than I would have liked. Reasoning that the chocolate flavor might be enhanced by the baking, I went with it.
That part about the batter barely covering the bottom of the pan? Didn’t matter. The combination of sour milk* and baking soda sent the cake soaring.
When it was done, I put the pan outdoors. The mid-40s temperature cooled it quickly enough to cut for the taste test (we didn’t bother with the suggested glaze). And my oh my, was that cake good. The springiness of the texture made up for the less-than-intense chocolate flavor. Still delicious, though.
Put it this way: Although I took chunks of the cake over to my niece and her kids, and DF reserved another section to take over to his mom, there should probably have been more than one piece of cake left this morning.
Cake 2.0
Which of course called for another one to be baked today. In part that was because I wanted to use up some more of the milk. (Of course I could have frozen it! But it was a lot more fun my way.)
But it was also so I could try four tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa instead of the suggested three. I came close to adding a little peppermint extract, but I wasn’t sure whether to omit the vanilla. It was already 7:15 p.m. and I didn’t want to take time to look it up, so I nixed the peppermint. For now.
When DF came back home from the baccalaureate Mass (he’s a cantor* and they asked him to join in the singing), I heard him say “CAKE!” in a happy voice. He saw it as soon as he hit the front steps, as I’d put the cake outside to cool while I attacked the diced vegetables and pork loin he’d left ready to stir-fry. So yes, the house smelled just delicious when he arrived, and yes, we both had dessert.
I forced myself to stop after one piece. This wasn’t easy: Although the four-tablespoon cake still wasn’t as chocolatey as I’d wanted, it was sooo easy to eat. Springy and still slightly warm and irresistibly fresh.
Now I’m wondering if the tablespoon of vanilla is meant to enhance the cocoa into something much more devilish. Maybe I’ll have to bake another one later this week. Purely in the interest of culinary science, of course.
*You can’t taste even a hint of sourness. I promise.
**He wants to get a T-shirt made up that says, “Yes, I cant.” How can I not love him?
Related reading:
This cake sounds divine! Are you planning on sharing the recipe?
So if DF stops singing, does he become a decantor?
If you click the link to The English Kitchen blog, you’ll be redirected to the recipe.
And decanter….Hahahahahahahahahaha! We both got a good chuckle out of that one. Thanks.
They do say that vanilla enhances chocolate flavor, and that coffee does as well. Maybe there is room in the recipe for some leftover morning coffee? In place of the hot water?
Maybe if it were for DF, but I cannot abide the flavor of coffee. Even a little bit of coffee.
I vote for some coffee, too. Also, your final recipe please. Thank you.
Click on the link to The English Kitchen blog, and then use an additional egg, an additional tablespoon of cocoa and a teaspoon of vanilla instead of a tablespoon. I expect you could pour in some coffee and add a teeny bit more flour to make up for it? Or stir in coffee powder?
Okay, made the cake last night and it was wonderful. I had a small bag of shredded zuke from last summer’s garden, so I thaw, wrung out, and threw it into the mixture, too. That way I can tell myself it is healthy to eat cake. Thanks for the recipe, since my husband’s only vice is that he loves milk but after two days he says it is starting to spoil (which, considering this is Fairbanks, may be true…). Did not add coffee but did add more cocoa and almond instead of vanilla.
thawed…when will I learn to proof before hitting post?
I think the coffee and maybe a sprinkling of chocolate chips would pump up the chocolate flavor. I want the recipe too.
Use the link to The English Kitchen blog, and bon appetit!
I was thinking of melting an ounce of unsweetened chocolate to add next time I bake it. Also might ditch the vanilla in flavor of peppermint extract, since mint chocolate chip ice cream is my favorite.
Can’t help envying people who have Spring – The last few years we have segued directly into Summer. About cake – A small addition of applesauce seems to enhance any cake recipe. And, finally PLEASE get him the T-shirt!
I know this cake, or at least a variation of it. My grandmother used to make it. It was a Depression era cake and she called it Border Cake/Boarder Cake. I wasn’t sure if “Border” referred to South of the Border with the Mexican flavors of chocolate and cinnamon, or if it was “Boarder” as in boarding house. In any case, it did not have the sour milk, but rather water, a stick of butter, a couple of squares of unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cinnamon and cloves, and a cup of raisins — all of which were boiled together until the chocolate was melted and the raisins were plump. A couple of cups of flour, 1 t. each of baking soda and salt were then added, and it was baked in a greased and dusted loaf pan. Upon cooling, it was topped with American buttercream (butter/10x sugar/vanilla, cream). Pure comfort food! I like your recipe. The sour milk acts as buttermilk which, as you discovered, does magical things to baked goods. And the vanilla? That does magical things to chocolate, and I would have used a good glug or tablespoon as well.
A cake recipe in one of my old cookbooks specified putting a couple of squares of baking chocolate into a cup and filling the cup with hot coffee. Once the chocolate was melted, it was added to the batter.
Coffee just is not my cup of tea, so to speak.
I’ll have to try this.
I was looking for the post about making Honey Mustard Pretzels. I loved Honey Mustard Wheat Thins which of course is discontinues. I thought I’d try your recipe, but I can’t seem to find it.
Here you go:
http://donnafreedman.com/honey-mustard-pretzels-easy-frugal-snack/
Also, DF has taken to adding a bit of cayenne (no more than half a teaspoon) to the mix. Zingy and, yeah, pretty addictive.
Cake sounds good…I might need to give it a try. I just made cookies last night because I had 2 bananas going bad. My banana cookies had 2 bananas smashed, 1 cup of quick oats and a handful of chocolate chips..at 350 for 15 minutes. It was quick and easy and somewhat tasty! I love the internet for cooking/baking!
Ditto. I find a lot of recipes just by typing in “sour milk chocolate cake” or whatever.
In the food section of my second book I suggest that people Googlewhack their pantries. That is, to check existing ingredients and type what they have along with “simple recipe” and see what pops up. This is especially useful close to payday, or when you are trying to keep from ordering pizza or stopping for takeout so often.