Hot Water

When I'm feeling lost or stressed out...I bake. Consequently, I bake a lot. I like to make anything from scratch; it soothes me. There is something so incredibly satisfying about following a recipe and knowing that if I mix flour, sugar, eggs, and butter together I will get something wonderful every time. It's more about the process then the eating, although lets not discount the eating.  I love to make people laugh and I love to make people desert. Both are so good for the soul you know.
My mother is one of those rare human beings who can take a pinch of this and a dash of that, who can without a recipe envision a cookie, cake, or frosting and just make it happen. I have always marveled at that. (it seems to have skipped a generation, that skill) I remember as a little girl my mom had an old yellowing cookbook that my sister and I used to make recipes out of, one of which was called "HOT WATER Chocolate Cake". I've never had a chocolate cake so good in my life. The cookbook has long since parted ways with our family. But, I have always remembered it as the best chocolate cake recipe of my life.
For birthdays my mom always asked Elizabeth and I what kind of cake we wanted, and she made it happen. Intricate frosting dresses on Barbie cakes. A dirt cake in a plastic flower pot with gummy worms and artificial flowers 'growing' out of it. Sometimes being a twin is hard, being a twin in a big family is especially difficult but my mom tried hard to make us feel like we were individuals and special. For birthdays especially.  Now that I'm an adult I see things from childhood with different eyes, with the eyes of a mother and can not for the life of me fathom how my mother managed it all.

Flash forward if you will a few years to a newly married Emily, three months to be exact, trying to plan a little birthday party for my new husband. Daniel and I grew up a little differently.  For his birthday every year he had "Man Cake" as it has come to be known, to him and his three brothers. A store bought Duncan Hines mix with chocolate chip and store bought chocolate frosting.  He insisted that this tradition be carried on for himself and our kids. I chose to veto it for our children. Also, birthdays aren't exactly a big deal for him. If you ask him what he wants he says 'nothing'. His only expectation of birthdays is that he gets his man cake. So for the last 5 years, he has had a store bought Duncan Hines mix with chocolate chips and a chocolate frosting for his birthday. Which is like bordering on sacrilegious for me. I have pleaded with him to let me make him a REAL chocolate cake, but he refuses. Anywho, it's the man's only request, so I honored it until this year. I finally found the "HOT WATER chocolate cake" recipe on Pinterest of places and insisted upon making it for him for his birthday. I won't rub it in.... You know, how right I was, how gloriously right I was...but he won't be having anymore box mix birthday cakes.

Here it is:
2 C. White Sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk ( or you can sub. by putting 1 tsp white vinegar into 1 cup whole milk and letting it sit for a few minutes, it's not as good but it works in a pinch)
1/2 cup butter melted
1 T vanilla
1 Cup Boiling hot water (you can also use coffee but I don't)

MIX MIX MIX MIX
Bake for 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes. Let cool, frost, enjoy perfection.

Through trial and error this is my frosting recipe:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter ( I cook with butter I never substitute)
2/3 cup Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
add vanilla, and more milk if needed.


I hope your loved one enjoys it as much as mine do. ~Em