Thimbleanna

Three Layer Chocolate Cake

Three Layer Chocolate Cake

1 c. unsifted unsweetened cocoa
2 c. boiling water
2 3/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 c. butter, softened
2 1/2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. walnuts

In medium bowl, gradually add boiling water to cocoa. Mix with wire whisk until smooth.
Cool completely. (Do this several hours before actually making cake — at same time,
set eggs out to bring to room temperature.) Sift flour with soda, salt, and baking powder.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease well and lightly flour three 9-inch cake pans.
(Put wax paper in the bottom of the pans.)

In mixer, at high speed, cream butter and then add sugar gradually.
Add eggs and vanilla. Beat for 5 minutes until light. At low speed, beat in flour
mixture in 1/4ths, alternately with cocoa mixture in 1/3rds. (Do not overbeat.)
Divide into pans — bake 25 – 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pans, then put on
cooling racks.

Easy Chocolate Frosting

3/4 stick (6 Tbsp.) butter
5 Tbsp cocoa
1 lb. box confectioner’s sugar (which is approx. 3 3/4 c.)
5 Tbsp. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

Cream butter. Mix cocoa and powdered sugar together. Add alternately with milk to the butter.
Then add vanilla. Spread on three layer chocolate cake. Garnish with chopped walnuts.
(This cake is just as good without the walnuts, so if you don’t like them, leave them out.
I have to have it with the walnuts though!)

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Three Layer Chocolate Cake

52 Comments / Recipes / February 18, 2011

Thank you SO much, all of you for all the birdy quilt love.  You’re the BEST imaginary friends ever!   In return, I’ve made you a chocolate cake.

Chocolate Cake

Ok, not really, but I would make you a chocolate cake if you lived nearby and we could sit and visit and have cake and coffee or your drink of choice. (With Chocolate Cake? It’s milk for me!) I must confess, MeMum made me this yummy cake last weekend. For several of us in the family, it’s our very favorite MeMum special cake.

We were talking the other day and MeMum said she’d just received a magazine that had this same cake recipe in it, except that they used whipping cream in between the layers. That’s weird, I thought, because Brigette just posted a recipe for a cake that uses whipping cream in between the layers when she was trying to save me from the microwave chocolate cake in a cup incident.  (Speaking of which, Molly also posted a great chocolate cake recipe during the same incident.  I forgot to mention that I tried her cake a few weeks ago and LOVED it — it has oatmeal in it and I’ll eat anything with oatmeal!  It’s a great cake for grab-and-go munching – speaking of which (again!), Randi is hosting Lunchtime Favorites for her Recipe Swap today and Molly’s cake would be perfect in a lunchbox too.)

Chocolate Cake

There’s probably some rule about the number of times you can change course in one conversation, so I’ll get back to MeMum’s cake. Er, Brigette’s cake. I looked at Brigette’s recipe, and sure enough, it’s almost the exact same recipe, except for that whipping cream. Frosting between the layers works better for us because our gang isn’t big enough to devour this cake in a day or two (no matter how much we love it!) Anyway, that tears it. If MeMum and Brigette have the same recipe, you know it has to be good!

Chocolate Cake

Three Layer Chocolate Cake

1 c. unsifted unsweetened cocoa
2 c. boiling water
2 3/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 c. butter, softened
2 1/2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. walnuts

In medium bowl, gradually add boiling water to cocoa. Mix with wire whisk until smooth. Cool completely. (Do this several hours before actually making cake — at same time, set eggs out to bring to room temperature.) Sift flour with soda, salt, and baking powder. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease well and lightly flour three 9-inch cake pans. (Put wax paper in the bottom of the pans.)

In mixer, at high speed, cream butter and then add sugar gradually. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat for 5 minutes until light. At low speed, beat in flour mixture in 1/4ths, alternately with cocoa mixture in 1/3rds. (Do not overbeat.) Divide into pans — bake 25 – 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pans, then put on cooling racks.

Easy Chocolate Frosting

3/4 stick (6 Tbsp.) butter
5 Tbsp cocoa
1 lb. box confectioner’s sugar (which is approx. 3 3/4 c.)
5 Tbsp. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

Cream butter. Mix cocoa and powdered sugar together. Add alternately with milk to the butter. Then add vanilla. Spread on three layer chocolate cake. Garnish with chopped walnuts.  (This cake is just as good without the walnuts, so if you don’t like them, leave them out.  I have to have it with the walnuts though!)

Chocolate Cake

And while we’re on the subject of chocolate, it’s really cooled off here this week, so I think I’ll go make a cup of hot chocolate, put on my fuzzy slippers and snuggle in for the V.P. debates. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

52 thoughts on “Three Layer Chocolate Cake”

  6. brigita

    you have to try it at least once with the cream!!!! it’s wonderful!
    your cake looks beautiful anna.
    thanks for not microwaving it.

  8. Jackie

    Just finished watching the debates and OMG you are making me so hungry!! But it is bed time and I will need to table that cake recipe for another time. Chocolate cake is my absolute favorite and I am absolutely drooling. I say frosting between the layers is the way to go for sure!!

  9. Karen

    OH LORDY WOMAN I think my jammies elastic just snapped with the site of that cake – a BIG slice of that cake with a tall glass of cold cold milk sitting across from you talking smart (that’s what Mr. Farmhouse says when he’s been hanging with his manly friends) we’d be in heaven sister.

    Hugs – Karen

  10. Jill

    Oh, Anna. How sweet of you to have a cake post on my birthday!

    Brian made me a chocolate cake…although it didn’t have three layers. (Still, it was yummy!)

    Yours looks delicious.
    XO

  12. Teresa

    Yummmmmmmy! Reading this right before I go to bed, and guess you know what I will be dreaming about.

  13. Elaine

    Why, oh why do you do these things to me? I saw that chocolate cake and now I NEED one! (Not really, that’s about the last thing I need, believe me.) But seriously, it does look delicious. I’ll have to save this recipe for a time when I really DO need a chocolate cake. :) Thanks!

  16. dottycookie

    Of course, that should have said plane *fare*. Obviously I’d have to send it far, since you’re quite a way away from here. And to think I used to use a keyboard for a living …

  17. Lucy Locket-Pocket

    Ooo, that looks scrummy! I’m very proud of myself because I made a chocolate courgette (zucchini) cake the other day and I’m not really a baker. We’ve had to put it on top of the very high fridge to stop little fingers from helping themselves to second, third, fourth helpings!!!

  20. Carolyn

    Wow…thanks for the cake! And I can enjoy it virtually, since there are no points that way! :o) Of course I’ve printed out the recipe, so it won’t stay as a no points cake for very long…

  21. Ali

    Oh Anna! I’ve lost 3.5lbs this weeke and then you post a picture and recipe of the most delicious looking chocolate cake! What’s a girl to do?

    Much love, Ali x

  22. molly

    Ooh! I should have checked here yesterday! Littlest grandson suggested we make a cake. Chocolate was the unanimous choice! We just made the one off the back of the hershey’s box, but it was yummy! Still, i’ll have to try this one. I agree with Brigita—whipped cream between the layers—oh my![Oh Thigh! too!!]
    BTW my grandsons are the best egg smashers, flour and sugar stirrers, milk pourers and absolute CHAMPION lickers and choc cake eaters in all the world! Biased?? Who me? Not at all. These are cold hard facts…….

  24. Camilla

    Srsly? That gorgeous cake is just plain evil. Wicked-yummy looking. I lost two lbs. this week, but may have to make some room for the cake. I can get Maddie (the teenager) to make it for momma. Will I burn in WW hell if I only take five bites?

    And your sweet quilt was verrry inspiring. I’m down several baby quilts (my pre-shop standard gift) and that one-patch idea with the perle cotton just may do the trick. Thanks once again for being a fountain of ideas… evil, fattening ideas. Miss You! C

  25. Penny

    Hey!!! Who do you think you’re calling imaginary?? :) Thanks for another wonderful recipe that will keep my hips happy!

  26. sharon

    Ok Miss Anna, I may not like gardening as you pointed out but……..I DO LOVE chocolate cake. And I’m sure MeMum would so want me to have one. She did meet me and I’m pretty sure she liked me. So……………I’ll tell you when I’m in Indiana and I would love me own cake from MeMum.

  30. kim

    Oh thanks for the cake Anna, am I really a figment of your imaginations …. Oh dear I hate to say it but I also really really don’t like milk, so I better have a cup of tea with my slice if you don’t mind!
    Kimx

  33. Nan

    My mouth is watering, Anna! Maybe I should just confess, and tell you that I’m close to the drool stage! Too Much Info, right? LOL! I am copying these wonderful recipes. Thank you so much for sharing your Mum’s chocolate cake recipe! I’m honored to have it.
    Oh, ice cold milk with my slab of chocolate cake please! I’m coming right over!!!!

  34. Judy

    That is my Grandma’s recipe too!! Except she didn’t use the walnuts. I think it is the best chocolate cake around. I make other ones but always go back to this one. No whipped cream either. But it sounds good.

  35. Amy

    Yowser, Anna, but that cake looks good. I am a big fan of chocolate and I love walnuts. I’m going to try out this recipe soon. Have a peaceful Sunday.

  36. raina

    Stop it already! I can’t try any chocolate recipes for anything right now (sigh! I am trying to lose 10 lbs.). I won’t even show this picture to the Babe because I will be forced to bake again. Last time you did something on chocolate cake I had to muster up my courage and bake something. I will say your mum’s cake looks delish!

  37. alison

    Almost had to stop reading this post halfway through I was so full of chocolcate cake. I had to keep changing mouthfuls of whipped cream and frosted icing. Now my tummy is very full indeed, I shouldn’t have had that last sentence.

  40. Susan

    Alright Anna, MeMum’s chocolate cake made me get tears in my eyes. Not only because it looks so yummy but my mum used to make a chocolate cake with walnuts on top just like that. My mother is no longer with us and I did not get her recipe so I am going to claim your mum’s as mine. I haven’t thought about that cake in over thirty years or better. And you’re so right–you gotta have the walnuts and a tall glass of milk.

  42. Tracey Craig

    Anna, You’re killing me here. I am really trying to knock off the sweets, as my Dr. thinks I need to lose some weight. So I am trying, not doing a very good job though. That cake looks so lucious. Have a piece for me will you?????? Hugs, Tracey

  45. Jen

    YUM! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I WILL be making this soon. Maybe for my husband as he LOVES chocolate.
    YUM, YUM, YUM!!

    Jen :)

  51. Sweet Cottage Dreams

    OhMYGOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any left? I can pretend to eat a piece at least. Yummers! I saved the recipe to my file. Great timing….I am on a diet…but swear I will break it just to make this tasty little treat!!!

    xoxo
    Becky

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