Montauk Pioneer - May 16, 2008

There's this little pocket on the left side of my stomach that I reserve specifically for dessert. I'm big on dessert after a meal. What's dinner without some sort of sweet to keep the taste buds happy?

It's the going joke in my family, too. They all stare me down when the waiter asks if we'd be interested in the dessert menu. It's not that they don't get dessert, they do, but they know I have an all-consuming sweet tooth.

I'm definitely more of a cooker than a baker, given my aversion to measuring. Bakers must measure every last grain of flour and ounce of butter. Baking is a science, much moreso than cooking is (well, my kind of cooking, anyways) where the ingredients have to be exact in order for your dough to rise or your cookies to stay soft and chewy. I've made some pretty awesome cookies, and I've also made chocolate chip hockey pucks.

I've mentioned before that my Aunt Franny is the baker of the family, and she passed along some of her passion and knowledge to me. She's a meticulous and enthusiastic baker, and when she bakes, she BAKES. I'm talking dozens of cookies, from snicker doodles to linzer tarts (Mom's favorite). Her baked goods taste like no others, and that's because she's just darn good at baking. She's got the touch. Last weekend I made dinner for my boyfriend's family (Mama's Pasta Sauce from last week) and his mom made a TO DIE FOR chocolate cake for dessert. She claimed she was no baker, but the cake was out of this world. And she's a stickler for a recipe. Follows it to the T. I chuckled when she pulled out her timer to beat the cake mixture for exactly 2 minutes - and proceeded to forget to press 'start.' So where did she get her recipe? From her boss, who discovered it on the back of a Hershey's Cocoa box. The recipe is for "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake" with "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting. And even though it's not my recipe, I am sharing it with you all because it really was the best darn chocolate cake I have ever tasted.

2 cups sugar
1 - 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1 - 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1-teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and sugar two 9-inch round baking pans. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into pans. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for at least 10 minutes. Remove from pans and transfer onto a wire rack.

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency. Add more milk, if needed. Yields about 2 cups.

*Thanks to Hershey for this delectable recipe.