Scratch Cake & Icing

  Why even bother writing about something this basic and simple? Because I want to remember where I got the recipe and what I did when I want to make it again.

 The cake recipe is here; the  frosting recipe is here.

 

 First, some notes on  the cake, I seldom mix ingredients as instructed. I just melted the  margarine and then added everything except the flour. That allows for easy mixing without an electric mixer. I use a soup spoon to incorporate everything to start and then I whisk it to really whip it up. Adding the flour requires a spoon again - at first - and then back to the whisk.

 I left the cake in the oven for the full 45 minutes. It was a little drier than I like so I'll just bake for it 40 minutes the next time.

 I made it in a 13x9" aluminum cake pan that I had lightly sprayed with olive oil.  Forget the flour, it's not necessary.

 Then to the frosting ...

 I used Hershey Dark Chocolate cocoa powder, the same as I use in the Coca-Cola cake. It gives the frosting a hearty, deep flavor. No sissy milk chocolate for us.

 There's plenty to cover the entire cake and it's soft enough to spread easily with the back of a soup spoon.

 When it cooled we had a first slice with chocolate-almond ice cream. Other than the cake being a bit dryer (and more dense) than I'd have preferred, it's an otherwise perfect and easy dessert to make.