Yesterday I woke up craving cake, which is not something I typically crave. Don’t get me wrong, I crave lots of other sweets but just not usually cake. I must have had a dream about cake or something. Not only was I craving cake, but I could vividly see the picture in my mind of the Chocolate Chip Cake shown in my mother’s Betty Crocker Cookbook that I would look at as a child. I am not even sure if she ever made that cake, but I wanted it.
In my Betty Crocker Cookbook the Chocolate Chip Cake is a version of the Silver White Cake. I feel like it used to be a yellow cake in her older cookbook, but I went with the white cake. Since I am also not a fan of frosting unless it is cream cheese or ganache, I decided to frost it with ganache as opposed to the buttercream frosting suggested. Let me say, the cake was delicious!
Ingredients for the cake:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
5 large egg whites
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Grease and flour two 9″ round cake pans, or a 13″ x 9″ rectangular pan.
Combine all of the ingredients except egg whites and chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl.
If you have never used shortening in a recipe or have difficulty measuring it out, I find using a knife instead of a spoon works best as I have shown in the next two photos.
Beat ingredients on low speed for 30 seconds, then on high speed for 2 minutes.
Add egg whites and beat on high speed for 2 more minutes.
Fold in the chocolate chips and pour into the pans.
Bake at 350 degrees, round pans for 30-35 minutes, rectangular for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool rounds 10 minutes and then remove cakes from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.
Now on to the ganache!!!!
Heat 2 cups of heavy cream in a pan until slightly boiling while being careful not to burn the cream.
Pour the cream over 16 oz. of semisweet chocolate and let sit for a few minutes. Whisk or stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
The consistency will be very thin and not ready to frost a cake. It is ready to use as a glaze, but not frosting. Refrigerate the ganache for a few hours whisking every so often until it becomes a thicker consistency.
Now it’s time to frost the cake!
Top one of the layers (round side down) with frosting, and then top with the second layer (round side up).
Frost the sides first, and then the top. Look how good that is starting to look!
My craving for cake was satisfied completely! Yum!
