Here it is & it is Worth the Effort. In the past, I have written a few Marvelous Monday’s about cakes. There’s the Orange, Coconut Banana Nut Cake, and then just the significance of a cake and the idea that anytime you make or buy a cake for an occasion, it sort of makes it special, and it does. When our kids were little and if Dad was away for a few days at a conference, visiting friends or for any reason, we’d welcome him back with a cake, usually a boxed chocolate cake, like a Duncan Hines Devil‘s Food-my Mom’s favorite boxed cake mix, and frosted with the coordinating canned frosting. If he happened to be gone in December or January we’d sprinkle crushed peppermint candies on top and in the filling between layers.
Many years ago, I read a column in the early days of Martha Stewart’s magazine, LIVING, about a featured food gal who had a purchased a little store in The Hamptons called The Barefoot Contessa. The lady was Ina Garten. Martha usually featured someone interesting in those early issues who she had come across in her catering, tag show shopping or any other individuals who she found interesting. Ina’s first book was coming out and in the article, she shared the story of how a young economist and her husband who both worked at the White House during the Nixon administration had drove from DC to the Hamptons on a
Sunday to checkout this place. Well, they purchased it, her husband took a faculty position at Yale University, they moved their life to the NYC/Connecticut area and the rest is all history, all these cookbooks, cooking shows and guest appearances later. There was a chocolate cake in that first book I read. It was fabulous. It made another appearance in a more recent cookbook with a few tweaks and it is now Mrs. Beatty’s Chocolate Cake. The first one I made all those years ago was good, but this one, is out of this world. I made the original only a few times after the initial effort, as it is more laborious that opening up the Duncan Hines Devil’s Food box and in those days of three children and all of their activities and events, there was less time to spend on the cakes from scratch and the boxed cake was just fine, it suited it’s purpose of “I knew you were coming, so I baked a cake” or the birthday or any othered markable occasion.
All these years later, and I come across on Instagram, Ina Garten’s Mrs. Beatty’s Chocolate Cake. The photo is lovely and the taste and smell although not accessible through the post, having made a chocolate cake from scratch years ago, I can smell and taste it in my mind and I decide that on the way home from Body Combat and Janet’s incredibly unique Yoga class with top pop, I’ll pick up the buttermilk, the only item I do not have on hand to make this mouthwatering cake.
I do and I did and it is nothing less than perfect chocolate cake. It’s the buttermilk that makes it so moist. The coffee gives it a hint of my morning mojo and the frosting, well, I could eat a bowl of that alone. If you have the time, this is a recipe that comes Highly Recommended, a 5 Star, a Keeper, what ever you call those recipes that “Stop Traffic.” Not wanting to waste a crumb or morsel of this, I froze the last few pieces, as with it being Thanksgiving week, there will be plenty of pumpkin pie and all the goodies that go with the holiday, after all, you can only eat so much. I would not serve guests cake frozen but for our consumption as an afternoon snack or for our dessert after dinner, this will be a welcome treasure.
To freeze the few pieces left, I froze on a plate and then after each was frozen, I placed each piece in a ziplock freezer bag, to be enjoyed later, fresh.
There are times in your life with you make the boxed cake or pick up a cake from the grocery store because that is what fits into you schedule or time in your life and it what is called for. The people who gather around your table are the ultimate focus and their needs. However, that time is unfortunately, short lived and you find yourself in a different time, era, decade or season of life and you have the time to make the cake from scratch or do what it is you enjoy doing that now you have the time. At this time, you can enjoy that cake from scratched alone, with your special person or with those kiddos and grandkiddos when they come to visit. It’s all part of the journey of life and it’s important to enjoy each and every stop before it’s time to pull out of the station so you can say as many days as possible…
It’s a Great Day 🍰
https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/Beatty-chocolate-cake
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe-1947521
