Disappointing!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 898, 19 October 1956, Page 23

Disappointing!

Dear Aunt Daisy, Will you please tell me why my) chocolate cakes never come up to expectations? I don’t care for the type that has golden syrup in it. I use this plain cake recipe and put in different flavourings, such as lemon or orange rind, coffee, etc., and the cakes turn out excellent; but chocolate, i.e., cocoa, no! It does not rise so well and is tight on top. Two ounces butter, 1 cup flour, salt, % cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 4% teaspoon baking soda in 2 tablespoons milk, Usual method and cook in oné 6-inch tin half an hour in a moderate oven. Would you put your answer in The _ Listener?--Constant Reader, North Island. I put the question to the Daisy Chain and here are two replies: I do think chocolate cakes flavoured with cocoa need a little more moisture, From Ashburton comes the first one: "IT hope this recipe will suit the lady who has been unsuccessful with her chocolate cake. It is a very moist cake. (This is just a little extra I like. Fill with lemon honey and put a few drops

of peppermint in the icing. If you wish to have a showy effect, put a white icing on first with the peppermint essence)Chocolate Sponge: 3 large eggs, 1 tablespoon butter, 6 oz. sugar, 4 oz. flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 | tablespoons cocoa, 3 tablespoons warm water. Beat eggs and sugar very well for about 10 minutes. Add sifted four. Put cocoa, butter and water in a saucepan and heat; stir until smooth; add eggs to flour, etc. Add baking pow-. der last. Bake 30 minutes in a moderate | oven. 5 No. 2 from Ponsonby: "I have just | heard about the chocolate cake being dry. This recipe I have used for yearsin fact, I use it also for small cakes and | any kind of cake, often making oubie: the recipe; add essence according to whatever kind of cake one wishes to make-4 oz. butter, 4 oz. sugar,-6 oz. flour (sieved), 1 go00d tablespoonful cocoa, 2 good tablespoons cold milk, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 eggs. Mix in usual way, creaming butter and sugar, then beating in eggs, fold in flour, then add cold milk, Add essence of vanilla to taste with butter and sugar; baking powder, of course, added to, four. I never have a failure. Bake in a good oven (not hot enough to burn) for half. an hour, I never open the oven door for half an hour. If cake is firm on top, or leaves the sides of the cake tin, it is cooked."