Chocolate Birthday Cake

Birthday Menu

Corned Beef and Pastrami on Rye with Dad's Deli Cole Slaw

Birthdays are always special at our house. This year was exceptionally so for my mom’s 103rd! We celebrated with our family’s traditional Chocolate Birthday Cake, a few gifts, a requested dinner served with lots of love and gratitude for our blessings. It’s been a tough year and what gets me through is the fun of cooking for my family, reading great stories and creating a home that is secure and loving.

Our Chocolate Birthday Cake is rich, sweet and very chocolaty, a melt in your mouth decadent taste with each bite. The cake is a beautiful presentation—so don’t wait to serve this cake on a birthday. It’s good on “un-birthdays” as well!

Recipe is below.

Foodie Lit

Review & Recipe

In this season of Chanukah, Corona Virus, Christmas and corruption, it is rewarding to read about heroism, and that’s what Kathryn Lang Slattery gives us with the story of her uncle Herman Lang, a German Jewish refugee who served in US Army Intelligence. Trained at Camp Ritchie, Herman and other German Jewish refugees recruited to the Army Intelligence got the name the Ritchie Boys and were critical in bringing an end to the Nazi terror.

Kathryn shared, “I wanted to tell this story because it was different from any other Holocaust story I had read. The Jewish hero is not a victim, but a young man who gradually grows from a frightened and frustrated teenager, looking for a place to belong, into a confident US Army intelligence officer who struggles with the conflicting emotions of hate and forgiveness.”

Chocolate Birthday Cake

Serves 8

Cake

3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate

1¾ cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon cloves

1 cup walnuts or pecans, ground

½ cup butter

1 ½ cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs, separated

¾ cup milk of choice

Filling

¼ cup raspberry jam, room temperature

Mocha Frosting

½ cup butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons brewed coffee

2 ounces baking chocolate, melted

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat two 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.

2. Separate eggs. Melt chocolate over double boiler. Remove from heat.

3. Mix together sifted flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves and chopped nuts.

4. Beat butter until soft and add sugar gradually, blending until light and creamy. Add cooled chocolate and vanilla.

5. Beat yolks into batter one at a time. Beat egg whites until stiff and set aside.

6. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with milk. Stir batter until smooth after each addition.

7. Fold beaten egg whites into the cake batter. Bake in prepared pans for about 20-25 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool to room temperature before frosting.

Filling

1. Spread raspberry jam on top of one cake until the entire layer is covered. Place other cake over the jam.

2. Ice with mocha frosting.

Frosting:

Cream butter. Add confectioner’s sugar slowly and beat until smooth. Add melted chocolate.
Mix in vanilla and coffee. If icing is too thick to spread, add 1-2 teaspoons of water or milk of choice until desired consistency.
Spread on top and sides of cake
Optional: Drizzle white chocolate on top of mocha frosting or grate semi-sweet chocolate on top of frosting.

Expandthetable suggestions

Dairy Free: Use a non-dairy milk, such as almond or soy. Use a non-dairy margarine in place of butter.
Cut the sugar: Use Stevia in place of sugar in cake, following measurement conversion on the package. Use sugar-free raspberry jam in place of jam. Drizzle melted sugar free jam on top of cake in place of icing.
Keep it Soy Free: Substitute any milk other than soy in cake recipe.
Coffee Free: Can’t have coffee? Add powdered carob or omit.
Cocoa: You can substitute 3/4 cocoa powder, sifted, for chocolate in the icing.