One Year Ago Today: The Beginning - Guittard Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

One year ago today, this blog was born. Although none of us are prolific posters, it's important to have a space where we can celebrate small things. So far, FOOD dominates our posts ... that's not much of a surprise, is it?

Here's our FAVORITE celebratory cake; now you can find the recipe 24/7. We seem to make this more often than any other. So often, in fact, that the aging recipe is permanently taped to inside of the spice cabinet door! It's also the cake that appears in the masthead photo for this blog.

GUITTARD CHOCOLATE CAKE

• 3/4 c. butter
• 1 2/3 c. sugar
• 3 lg. eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 c. water
• 2 c. unsifted flour
• 2/3 c. Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa (Guittard is BEST, but Ghiradelli is good too)
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Sift together the dry ingredients and set them aside. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat well (for several minutes). Add the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the water.

Pour the batter into well-greased and floured cake pans lined with wax paper. Makes three 8" layers, or two 9” layers. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool on wire rack; remove from pan after 6 minutes to finish cooling.

White Chocolate Frosting

6 tablespoons heavy cream

4 ounces white chocolate, chopped (baker’s)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

Bring cream almost to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add white chocolate, stirring until completely smooth. Stir in vanilla and water. Cool, stirring occasionally. Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add powered sugar and beat for at least 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. On low speed, add white chocolate mixture and blend until desired consistency is reached.

Frosts and fills a 9” layer cake.

Note: Dark chocolate curls are beautiful on top of the cake!