My father dated my Aunt Betty a few times before he started dating my mother. At my parent’s’ 60th Anniversary dinner we asked him, “So why did you marry Mommy instead of Aunt Betty?” “Well, Betty couldn’t make the chocolate cake.”
This is “the” chocolate cake recipe that won my father. My mother made it for every special occasion – church suppers, neighborhood picnics, and for my father’s birthday for 65 years . She makes the boiled sugar frosting without a thermometer – she can judge the temperature of the sugar syrup by the length of the thread it spins from the tip of a stainless steel spoon.
The recipe comes from my mother’s father’s step-mother. This is the side of the family whose Tory politics made them unwelcome in Connecticut in the 18th century, so my grandfather grew up in New Brunswick, but he and his sister returned to Connecticut around 1905.
Great-grandma Minnie’s Slate Roof Cake
Cake:
Mix
Cream together:
½ c butter
2 eggs or 3 yolks
2-1/2 sq bitter chocolate, ,melted
Stir in
½ c sour milk with
½ tsp baking soda mixed in it
Beat in
2 c flour
¼ tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
Add gradually
1 c boiling water
Batter will be thin. Bake in 3 layers, or a 9x12 rectangle about 35 minutes at 375 degrees.
Frost with chocolate frosting or the following boiled frosting:
Beat
3 egg whites until barely stiff
Boil:
1-1/8 c sugar
3/8 c water
1/8 tsp salt
stirring constantly, until mixture spins a thread 8” long
Pour slowly into the egg whites, beating constantly.
Add ¾ tsp vanilla
Beat until frosting holds its shape.
Spread on the cake and pour
2-1/2 sq melted bitter chocolate on top
My own notes:
You’ll find this frosting called ‘White Mountain” icing in modern recipe books. That 8” thread is equivalent to 238 degrees on the candy thermometer. Like candy-making, don’t try it on a cloudy day. One person can do it with a stand mixer; otherwise it takes one to hold the beater and turn the bowl and another to pour the syrup.
If you want a layer cake, use the whole eggs; it unmolds better.
