A very special chocolate cake

The photo is of Larry’s Grammie Bennett – his mother’s Mom. This is her recipe and I still have the card on which she wrote it to give to me at my wedding shower in 1976. The writing is very faded but I know it by heart so getting it out when I make this cake is more for the sentimentality of seeing her handwriting than to actually follow the directions. She is holding Lauren in this photo which was taken at Christmas in 1983 when Lauren was just over a year old. Grammie is sitting down in this pic but even so, you can tell that she is not very tall – just under 5 feet. The very first thing she said to me when Larry brought me to meet her and Grandad was “Oh look at you! You are so nice and tall!” She must have told me a hundred times over the years how much she envied my height.She was Swiss and never entirely lost the lilt in her speech that came from her childhood. She led a quite amazing life including spending time in the Canadian logging camp where her father and older brothers were working.

She brought this cake to all occasions and being an old-school Baptist lady, if anyone in their church family had any sort of trouble, she would whip one of these together and take it to them. It would join all the rest of gifts of food brought by the other church ladies and together they would help alleviate whatever illness, grief or trouble might be going on there. [All Christians know that there are few circumstances in life that cannot be improved upon by a nice chocolate cake and some realy good potato salad.] Well into her 70s she regularly helped clean house for the “old people” in her church and no baby was born in her family or church without recieving the benediction of a hand crocheted blanket and sweater set. She never sat down for more than a minute without doing some kind of handwork – crochet, knitting, embroidery or mending.

For family gatherings, the cake was always in her aluminum 9×13 pan with a plastic cover – I hope someone in the family ended up with it. Larry’s cousin Judy bought the house so maybe she has it now. I can’t duplicate her frosting – it was a very smooth sort of butter cream that was a perfect counterpart to the rich chocolate and always topped with a generous amount of sprinkles.

We lost her quite a few years ago now to Alzheimers. The nurses at the facility where she spent her last years always remarked on her sweet nature which Larry’s Mom attributed to her devotion to the Lord and I would not argue with that idea. I look forward to seeing her again and I am guessing that now she is as tall as she always wanted to be.

I made this for Ellyn’s birthday last week and it was just as good as I remember.

Grammie’s Chocolate Cake
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9×13 pan
Mix together:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Add in and beat at medium speed for about 2 minutes, until smooth:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup sour milk [sour cream works too]
1/2 cup boiling water

Smooth batter into the pan and bake for about 20 minutes for a glass pan, a few minutes more for metal, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely and top with the frosting of your choice. You don’t have to put sprinkles on top, but go ahead and give them a try – the little crunch they give is actually a nice thing. And if you put some candles on it and sing Happy Birthday, you might get a nice pic like this.