It’s ok to be too busy for a layer cake.

Yassss look at that fudgey goodness.

I know what you’re thinking.  That doesn’t look like something I would normally blog about.  It isn’t layered.  It doesn’t require a bazillion techniques and dirty dishes.  It isn’t even very cute.   Normally I would be way too competitive with myself to post about this super humble chocolate cake, but I am trying to rethink that sort of philosophy.

This weekend while I was at the gym (notice how I casually threw that in there to subtly brag about how I went to the gym) I listened to an interview that Nigella Lawson gave on the Splendid Table.  The segment was titled “Nigella Lawson defends the honor of home cooks,” and I found it really reassuring and rather inspiring.  She talked about a lot of things, but one of her primary points was that you don’t have to create fancy food to be successful in the kitchen. If it tastes good, you’ve accomplished what you set out to.  That really hit home with me.

So, this weekend Matt and I were planning to have his brother and our future sister-in-law over for dinner to hang out and talk about their wedding music, and I just wanted something quick and yummy!  I scanned this recipe, brought to us from Mary Berry’s ever-practical “Fast Cakes,” determined that it would require very little in the way of washing dishes, and whipped it together.

Mary Berry frequently calls for margarine in her recipes.  As a truly passionate believer in the power of butter, I have always been vaguely suspicious of this request…. why would you ever use margarine when you have the joy of butter available to you in every dairy aisle in the country?  I normally just ignore this direction and use butter instead, but it seemed like the right time to actually follow the directions.

Side note: does anyone even use margarine every day anymore?  I remember using it when I was a child, but then my mom was diagnosed with celiac and we started using butter again.  In fact, I started using it all the time on any sort of food that might even sort of call for it.  In copious amounts.  I’m sorry, I just love butter.  Julia Child was totally right.

Anyway.

The margarine made no obvious difference in the cake texture.

This recipe was super simple.  I just combined cocoa powder with some hot water, stirred that around in the stand mixer for a while, and then added the rest of the ingredients.

Mary Berry also frequently calls for self-raising flour, which is a nice little shortcut.  It just has some baking powder and baking soda mixed into it, meaning you don’t have to do that yourself.  While the mixer was adding in the margarine and the various dry ingredients, I set about lining the tin.  This is something that can really make baking cakes easier, and it is so easy to do.  If you want, you can trace the tin on the parchment paper and cut it out, but I prefer to fold the paper in half, in half again, and then two more times so that it makes a little pie slice.  You can trim this, unfold it, and place it in your greased cake pan.  Then, just spray with cooking spray again and you are good to go.  It is very unlikely that your cake will stick if you line with parchment paper!

I popped that in the oven, and made the frosting, which was fudgy and delicious.  I actually ate a fairly embarrassing amount with a spoon while drinking a glass of milk and watching Gilmore Girls.  They are a bad influence.

I also managed to make quite a mess with the cocoa powder and the powdered sugar.  I have never once successfully used either of these ingredients without creating a little cloud of powdery residue that then settles all over the kitchen.  This appears to be a part of my creative process.

After checking to make sure that the cake had shrunk away from the walls of the tin a little and was springing back when I touched it, I took it out of the oven and popped it on a rack to cool.

Second side note: it drives me nuts that my wire rack makes grid marks on all my cakes.  I should probably get over that.  But why doesn’t Christina Tosi get those marks on her cake?  Where’s Mary Berry’s grid?

After frosting this and leaving it to set for a while, I dished it out after dinner and I thought it was pretty durn delish if I do say so myself.  It also made for a nice fireside treat today while I was procrastinating posting my lesson plans.

Dexter also likes fire time.

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend!  I know this is going to be a crazy week for me, so I’m glad to have some leftover cake and a feeling of peace after chilling out for several hours today.

Go find yourself some chocolate.  I heard it has antioxidants or something.  So it’s salad.