Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake

If I were naming this cake, I think I'd just call it Plain Chocolate Cake. Not plain as in ugly, but plain as in unadorned, simple, essential. If you only had one chocolate cake in your baking repertoire, you'd want to give serious thought to making it this one.

First of all, unlike some of the other recent cakes which seemed easy, but weren't on the Q&E list, this one really is. That is, it's on the list, it's quick, and it's easy. Easy enough that I had it almost entirely put together by the time Jim went upstairs and got his camera. (He's kind of a slow walker).

In fact, the hardest part was picking the pan. I already announced I wasn't going to buy a new silicone bundt pan when I'd mortgaged the house for various Nordicware pans. I decided it was time to bring out the Christmas wreath pan again.

Here's how you put it together.
1) Mix cocoa and boiling water.
2) Mix eggs, water, and vanilla.

3) Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, and cocoa mixture.

4) Add egg mixture.

5) Put in pan.

6) Bake

Really. If you can make a cake mix, you can make this.

My cake took a few minutes less than the minimum 50 minutes, probably because the pan was wider and flatter than a typical bundt pan.

The simple decoration of powdered sugar brought out the ribbon and pine cones that you couldn't see before sugar was sifted over the cake.
And that's it--eat, taste, love.

You could also serve it with ice cream or whipped cream, if you wanted to gussy it up. If you wanted to further gussy, you could put some chocolate sauce on the ice cream that sits next to the cake. (Maybe you have some leftover sauce from the Bostini?) But I like it best plain.
Even writing the blog was quick and easy. Whereas it took me hours to write about the Lemon Canadian Crown cake, and required multitudes of photos, not to mention a fair amount of complaining, this blog virtually wrote itself. Thanks, Rose. I needed that.

TASTING PANEL:
Jim: "Really good chocolatey taste. I like the light texture. I think I'd like it even better with whipped cream."
Rachel: "Delicious. I don't think it needed anything else."
Steve: "I'd eat it with ice cream or with frosting or plain because I'm so agreeable."