The talk of Reddit lately has been this antique "feathery fudge cake" topped with chocolate satin icing.
The "Old Recipes" subreddit has been buzzing about Nana's Devil's food cake for a while now, but now there's a new chocolate cake king—this beauty from the 1950s Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.
The addition of 1 1/4 cups of ice water was the first item that jumped out at me when I read the recipe. Is it about water?
Baked into a cake? Not using milk? I felt compelled to give it a try because my curiosity got the better of me. This is the outcome.
Just like any other cake, this one started with creaming the wet ingredients (butter, sugar, eggs, melted chocolate, and vanilla extract). Then, the sifted dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) were added one by one.
The 1 and 1/4 cups of ice water were the only somewhat unusual ingredient. A fast Google search informed me that adding ice water to cakes is definitely a thing, even though most cake recipes I've seen call for whole milk or buttermilk as the liquid component. The fat in the cake batter apparently stays put with this procedure, which results in a very light and airy cake.
Two cake pans should be greased and baked at 350°F for 35 minutes after the batter is made. While beating the frosting in a bowl over another basin of ice water does add a little extra time to the process,
the end result is well worth it because the frosting is perfectly spreadable thanks to this method. You can frost the cakes after they have cooled.
I'll admit to at least one baking mistake during this cake-making escapade. (Luckily, it was recoverable). Avoid crumpling a sheet of parchment paper and hoping for the best when lining cake pans.
Instead, line a round cake pan with parchment to avoid wrinkles. Although I covered mine with frosting, it could have been prevented. This cake is practically foolproof otherwise!