The Fanny Farmer and Denver Chocolate Cake

My first and ultimate cookbook was and always will be the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. Throughout my childhood, this battered (in both senses) old book, without cover but with decades of love and cooking pressed into its pages. If you browse through the pages of that particular relic, you'll see old scratch and sniff stickers and pressed flowers from my childhood, and every single nail on every single hand in the illustrations "painted" with red marker.

I just received the updated version of the Fanny Farmer (My sister, Kaya, insists mom's is the 11th edition. I will pay good money for it, if you have one.) and it omitted a wonderful, easy chocolate cake that creates it's own sauce and is needless to say, delicious.

The recipe is so simple, it's perfect for people who don't make cake. Even my dad makes it on occasion. I think of it today when the chill in the Atlantic air brings back that Canadian need for warmth and comfort. Here it is:

Denver Chocolate Cake

Sift together:
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt.
Set aside.

In a pan over low heat, melt together:
2 tbsp butter
1 oz unsweetened chocolate or 3 tbsp cocoa

Add to flour mixture, then stir in:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Pour into a buttered baking dish about 9" x 9".

Over the top of the pan, scatter without mixing:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
4 tbsp of cocoa

Pour over the top 1 1/2 cups cold water or cold coffee.

Bake 40 min at 350 and let stand until cool.

I like to serve this warm with a dollop of softly whipped cream (floppy cream), late at night.

A note about technique: it seems counter-intuitive to simply sprinkle sugar over a batter without mixing, and then just pour the water (or coffee) on top of that. It will look like a muddy, chunky puddle. But something mystical happens in the oven, the water sinks down, and the sugars and cocoa melt into a thick, creamy, perfectly smooth sauce resting at the bottom of the pan.

It's more of an upside down cake, you want to serve it straight from the pan, and invert the pieces to have the sauce on top. You could also garnish with maybe clemantine segments, raspberries or keep it simple and just serve as is.