These are unprecedented times. The first aisle of the grocery to fall victim to the virus was the paper goods, ransacked by the panic-shoppers. The FORO, or the fear of running out is now crossing over into baking supplies, where you're lucky to even find a sad few bags of overpriced banana flour (what do you even do with this?). Regardless, we're all coping through the kitchen, and as the peer pressure mounts, I’ve found myself tangled in a mess of wasted flour, stale water, and knee-deep in failed sourdough starters. I sneer at the perfectly baked loaves of fermented goodness everyone and their mother (does that count as a sourdough joke?) are sharing all over socials. For some reason, I just can’t get this thing to work. So for now, I’ll cut my losses and with the little AP I have left I’ll return to tried-and-true recipes that will never let me down.
Besides, what we really need during these toilful times are sweet, simple, and satisfying recipes that promise a dopamine-releasing bake- it’s truly the little wins that will keep us going right now, guys. So given the little resources we have, let’s make the best of this and embrace cake. Chocolate cake to be exact. Go on, pick yourself up again, put on your apron, and head to the cupboard. Pull out the flour reserves (I promise your last 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose won’t go to waste), and dig through the deep dark voids of the corner cabinet and pull out that archaic canister of Hershey’s cocoa you forgot you had (there’s a solid 50% chance it’s hiding back there). Even better? You’ll only be using 1 of your precious eggs since if you're anything like me you're most likely down to the last 4, and have great hopes of naturally dying a couple for Easter on Sunday. A 1/2 a cup of sugar (that dated bag of Domino has probably been hanging out with Mr. Hershey’s the past few years), a splash of vinegar, some oil, milk, baking powder, soda, and salt complete the team roster. But you’ll be the real MVP, as each evening for the next 8 days of quarantine (or 4 if you love a slice with your morning coffee) you’ll relish in the deliciousness that is this chocolate cake, the only one you’ll ever need.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups All-Purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup of suagr
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon, if you’ve got it
1 egg
1/4 cup oil (olive, coconut, canola, melted butter perhaps)
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vinegar (white or ACV- we both know those daily wellness shots that never stuck left you with a big ole’ bottle of Braggs)
1 cup of milk (nut, cow, oat, seed, water…)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and oil an 8x8 inch pan or small bundt.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, powder, salt, cinnamon, and cocoa till combined and there are no more dry lumps.
In a medium bowl, crack the egg and whisk it till it’s nice and frothy. Then add the vinegar, milk, vanilla, and maple syrup. Mix till emulsified and smooth.
pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry, and stir with a spatula till smooth and no pockets of flour remain.
Pour the batter into the pan, and bake 30-40 minutes till the edges begin to pull away from the pan and the cake passes the toothpick test with maybe some minor crumbs.
I topped mine with my grandma’s favorite seven-minute frosting, inspired by the bakers at this cafe, which I randomly stumbled upon during a deep Instagram stalk. Some festive dried flowers also made an appearance atop (roses, calendula, hibiscus- shoutout to amazon and Mom’s bulk section).
