DAY 158 - HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATETOWN SPECIAL CAKE

Last month our Tasty Bunch decided to start meeting again with one big change...eating out. For right now we are meeting an hour later for dessert and social distancing. Friends Carol and Keith hosted last month. This month it was our time.

We usually meet on the second Saturday night of the month, but it's not written in stone. Actually since we are all retired we can meet any night of the month. This time we were attending another socially distancing event ... our granddaughter Madison's tenth birthday party. It was good that we postponed it a week because even though the party ended at 3:00, we stayed longer into the evening. (See picture at the bottom.)

It's always a chore for me to find something that looks good to make when we host. Often I have seen a recipe before hand and decide to make it for the occasion, but I haven't been looking at many recipes lately so it took me a little while to find something I wanted to make. I decided to put two recipes together - one for the cake and one for the icing and it turned out really good. 

I wasn't really surprised because buttermilk makes a cake taste so much better - more moist. We ate about 2/3 rds of the cake. Yesterday afternoon Wayne and I took the other 1/3 to Patrick for his birthday. It's been a while since I had a "birthday" cake for him. 😉

HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATETOWN SPECIAL CAKE

1/2     cup cocoa 
1/2     cup boiling water
2/3     cup shortening
1-3/4  cup sugar
1        teaspoon vanilla
2        eggs
2-1/4  cups unsifted flour
1-1/2  teaspoons baking soda
1/2     teaspoon salt
1-1/3  cup buttermilk or sour milk (I used 1% buttermilk)

Stir together the cocoa and boiling water until smooth; set aside. (I just use the measuring cup that I used to boil the water in the microwave for the bowl.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9 - inch round cake pans. Set aside.

Cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. (I let the stand mixer run while I measured out the dry ingredients so it was lots of air in the mixture.)

Add eggs; beat well.

Make sure that you clean the sides of the bowl with a spatula...

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt with a whisk.

Add alternately with buttermilk to creamed mixture.

Blend in cocoa mixture.

This step is really important for the looks of your cake. You want to make sure the chocolate is well blended.

I ended up using a spatula after I thought I had it blended with the mixer. Boy was I surprised.

Pour into prepared pans.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans before removing from pans to finish cooling. 












Frost with frosting.

CHOCOLATE-PEANUT-BUTTER FROSTING

4-3/4    cups sifted powdered sugar (1 lb)
1/2       cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2       cup creamy peanut butter
1          teaspoon vanilla
2/3       cup boiling water
Peanut Butter Swirls

In a mixer bowl combine sugar, cocoa, boiling water, peanut butter, and vanilla.

Beat with an electric mixer till combined.

Cool 30 minutes.

Frost cake. Decorate with peanut butter if desired.

Peanut Butter Swirls:

Drop creamy peanut butter from a spoon atop the cake, Use a spatula to swirl the peanut butter into the the frosting, wiping the spatula between swirls.

Personal note...I followed the directions and cooled the mixture 30 minutes. The mixture was still fairly thin.

I spooned a thin layer between the two layers and

on top and sides. I then put the rest of the frosting in the refrigerator for several minutes which thickened it more. In the picture you can see I spooned it just on top (what I had spread on the cake up until this point was a nice thin layer that had hardened)

so I could then add small spoonfuls of peanut butter to swirl on top.

It looked a little bit more like the picture but the peanut butter didn't want to swirl like I wanted it to. 

I added a scoop of either French vanilla or fudge ripple ice cream...

Here is Madison at her birthday party. 10 years old - hard to believe!