Piece of Cake

*Warning-This post contains obscene amounts of sugar and butter. Some subject matter may not be suitable for dieters. Viewer discretion is advised.

I love cake. Really, I do. It’s one of life’s greatest luxuries. It’s one of my favorite food groups. To me, there is no bad cake, just cake and better cake. It’s the one thing I have a tough time staying away from. I gave up cake for Lent last year and thought I would die before I could eat it again, especially that day we sat at one of my favorite restaurants and that horrible, evil Teen Angel ate a big ol’ piece of strawberry cake right in front of me. Punk. We had two kinds of cake at Super Cop’s wedding this past weekend, chocolate and white. The whole time I was sitting through the ceremony I was thinking about the big hunk of cake I was going to get afterwards. Hand to God. I couldn’t quit thinking about it. What to choose? Chocolate? White? I chose the white. Not that I don’t like chocolate. I do, but when given a choice I’ll pick the white. I’m not very choosy, but I do have my favorites.

My absolute favorite is Italian Cream. It really doesn’t get any better than butter, sugar, cream cheese and pecans.

A close second is strawberry. I’ll eat any food that’s pink, especially the strawberry stuff.

A fancy strawberry cake is pretty, but I really prefer the old fashioned kind.

As I matured I grew to love carrot cake, probably because it too, is covered in cream cheese frosting. I’ll eat anything covered in cream cheese frosting…cakes, cookies, dead possum.

Another all time favorite is coconut cake.

I like the ones you make at Christmas that have to sit in a tin for three days before you can eat it. Ho, ho, ho and a Merry Christmas to me.

I’m even a fan of plain ol’ sheet cake. When I supervised a newsroom of about forty people, I bought sheet cake all of the time. We celebrated everything, because nothing puts a smile on the faces of forty, aggressive, Type A personalities like butter cream frosting...or cream cheese frosting.

I don’t get much cake these days because Hubby is on a diet. I have to sneak it into my diet during the day or when he’s away, but it’s not enough. These days I think about cake all of the time. I crave it frequently…dream about it…lust after it….pine wistfully for it. On days like this, I pull out my recipe books and mull over the cake pages, wishing I could sit down and shove my face into a big old slab of Italian Cream cake…or strawberry cake…or coconut cake….or any cake. It wouldn’t be right to dream about it and not share that sugar goodness with you, so today I’m sharing my favorite cake recipe. It’s a chocolate cake. It’s not a pretty cake. In fact, it's rather plain looking, but looks can be deceiving. Once you bite into it, you’ll never want to try another chocolate cake again. It's delicious. It’s simple. You can’t mess it up, and it’s moist, moist, moist. So go forth my friends, bake a cake and think of me when you bite into it. Oh, and don't be afraid of the buttermilk. That's what makes it so good. I promise.

LUCIOUS CHOCOLATE CAKE

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 stick butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp. soda

1 cup water

4 Tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

Stir together sugar, flour and soda. Set aside. Put the water, butter, oil and cocoa in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and pour over dry mixture. Stir well. Set aside. Mix buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Add to chocolate batter. Pour into greased and floured 9 X 13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Start the icing and have ready to pour over cake when cake comes out of oven.

ICING

1 stick butter

4 Tablespoons cocoa

6 Tablespoons milk

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 box powdered sugar

Place butter, milk and cocoa in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Be careful not to scorch. Add powdered sugar. Beat well. Add 1/2 cup pecans if desired.