A Day for Chocolate Cake

January 27th is National Chocolate Cake Day, so let's take a closer look at the decadent dessert. Spanish explorers found chocolate beverages among the Mesoamericans in Mexico. They took the beans back to Europe where sugar was added to the drink they prepared to make it more popular.

In 1764, Dr. James Baker discovered how to make chocolate usable for other treats by grinding the cacao beans between millstones, much like grinding grain. Conrad Van Houten from the Netherlands found a way to extract the fat from the cacao liquid in 1828. This produced a solid mass and ground into a powder that made chocolate much more affordable. Now, chocolate cakes became common.

The Duff Company, a molasses company in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, introduced the first devil's food chocolate cake mix in the 1930s, but mass production was held up until after World War II. Today there are many versions of the chocolate cake. Here's an old recipe for devil's food cake written for today's cooks:

        Chocolate Devil's Food Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 leveled cups dark brown sugar, not packed tightly
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup margarine and shortening mixed
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup hot water
3 egg whites

Cream together sugar and shortening mix. Blend in egg yolks and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together three times. Alternately add milk and hot water while mixing. Fold in beaten egg whites. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees until done (about 30 minutes for 9" layer pans). Frost as desired.

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