Aunt Sandy's favorite childhood dessert: a 1930s fudge cake of cocoa, sour milk and shortening, baked in two 9-inch layers. Moist, deeply chocolate and old-fashioned. Serves 12.
This was Aunt Sandy's favorite dessert when she was a little girl: the fudge cake her mother made. For years nobody could find the recipe. Then, in 1989, Sandy came across a 1930s fudge cake in a magazine article, close to her mother's but with slightly different amounts, and she put it in the cookbook she wrote for Eric. Her letter at the front of the book tells the story.
It is a simple, very chocolatey two-layer cake made with cocoa and soured milk. Frost it with any frosting you like; Sandy recommended a mocha cream frosting.
From the original: Sandy's typed page, with her note about her mother's cake. Tap to enlarge.Her letter to Eric at the front of the book remembers this cake: the special chocolate cake his grandmother, Sandy's mother, made when Sandy was a little girl. Tap to enlarge.
Ingredients
Cake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, such as Crisco
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, such as Hershey's
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
1 cup sour milk (1 tablespoon white vinegar plus milk to make 1 cup)
To finish
Frosting of your choice, such as a mocha or chocolate buttercream
Instructions
Prepare the pans. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour the bottoms and sides of two 9-inch round layer cake pans, 1 1/2 inches deep.
Sour the milk. Put the vinegar in a liquid measuring cup and add milk to the 1-cup line. Let it stand for 5 minutes while you mix the cake.
Mix the dry ingredients. Stir together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Sandy did this on a sheet of waxed paper, which makes it easy to pour into the bowl.
Cream. In a large mixing bowl, beat the shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Add the cocoa. Stir the cocoa and water together into a smooth paste and beat it into the creamed mixture. Sandy's page lists the cocoa and water but leaves out this step; this is the usual way for a cocoa cake of the period.
Make the batter. Add the flour mixture alternately with the soured milk, beating until everything is fully combined. Scrape the bowl to be sure it is all mixed, then divide the batter between the pans.
Bake and cool. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn the layers out and cool completely.
Frost. Fill and frost the cooled layers with the frosting of your choice.
Tips
Use natural unsweetened cocoa, like Hershey's, not Dutch-process. The baking soda needs the acidity of natural cocoa and sour milk to make the cake rise.
No vinegar? 1 cup of buttermilk works in place of the sour milk.
The flour is measured unsifted, as the recipe says: spoon it into the cup and level it off.
Butter can replace the shortening for a richer flavor; the cake will be a little less tender.
Wrapped well, the unfrosted layers freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw them wrapped, then frost.
Questions about this recipe
What is sour milk, and can I use buttermilk?
Sour milk is milk with a little vinegar stirred in, which thickens it slightly and adds the acid the baking soda needs. One cup of buttermilk works the same way.
Can I use Dutch-process cocoa?
Not in this recipe. It relies on baking soda, which needs the natural acidity of regular unsweetened cocoa and sour milk; Dutch-process cocoa is not acidic, so the cake would rise less.
What frosting goes with Fudge Cake Revisited?
Sandy recommended a mocha cream frosting. A chocolate or vanilla buttercream, or a simple whipped cream, is good too.
