When we moved into our home 13 years ago, our neighbor baked us a bundt cake. I don’t remember what frosting it had on it, I only remember the cake was fantastic. Come to find out it is the recipe on the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa container. Believe me when I say, this cake, really takes the cake!
It is the only chocolate cake I will make, and have made since then. I usually make it as a bundt cake, but have made cupcakes and a sheet cake over the years as well. It has been the only cake my daughter requests on her birthday for I don’t even know how long. And since her birthday was 4 days ago, I just made one!
When the cake is for my daughter, I just use Betty Crocker’s Vanilla Glaze recipe. When it’s for someone else, I put Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Glaze on top of the vanilla glaze. My daughter isn’t a big fan of chocolate glaze, that’s why I don’t make it for her, not because I don’t think she’s worthy lol.
** A few tips, first make sure to sift the dry ingredients, especially when using cocoa powder. Also, I use water from the tap because mine gets really hot. I have used it when it didn’t get quite as hot, and the recipe doesn’t work well.
Here is the cake recipe, or you can take it right off of the container.
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup boiling water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan (or whichever pans you prefer).
Sift all of the dry ingredients together. As I stated earlier, it is really important to sift the ingredients and not just mix.
Add the eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for two minutes while scraping the sides constantly.
Add the water into the batter and mix well with a spoon or spatula, the batter will be very loose. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 – 35 minutes until a toothpick or knife comes out clean.
This cake is so moist it doesn’t even need glaze, but why not add a little butter right? Yum.
The glaze recipes are from Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook, which I received as a wedding shower gift in 1998. It’s always been my “go to” cookbook. I don’t believe these recipes are on-line, so here they are.
Vanilla Glaze:
1/3 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 to 4 tbsp. hot water
Melt the butter in a saucepan and remove from the heat.
Stir in the vanilla, then stir in the powdered sugar and add hot water 1 tbsp. at a time until the glaze is smooth and consistency of thick syrup.
Then you can just drizzle the glaze how ever you would like over the cake.
Chocolate Glaze:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. corn syrup
1 to 2 tsp. hot water
Heat the chocolate chips, butter, and corn syrup in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until the chocolate chips are melted. Cool slightly.
Stir in the hot water 1 tsp. at a time until the consistency of thick syrup.
Drizzle over the cake just as I have the vanilla glaze. As I mentioned previously, the chocolate glaze is amazing on top of the vanilla glaze. Yum!