Chocolate Fudge Cake (1941) ★★★★

I know I've been MIA for a while here. I promise, its not because I have abandoned the blog! I have actually been busy researching for a big blog post. The problem is, it didn't start out so big. Somehow it snowballed into a huge project, so unfortunately its nowhere near ready to share yet.

So what is it about? Food rationing in Canada during WWII! I know, I know, theres TONS of information out there about wartime food rationing. But what I found was, there's hardly anything about Canada. And what little information there is is often incomplete or misleading. So I'm on a mission!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a Canadian wartime recipe.

Original Recipe:

                            CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE

1 egg                                 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup butter                    2 tsp. cocoa (large)

1 tsp. salt                          1/4 cup hot water

1/2 tsp. soda                     1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sour milk

     Beat egg, add sugar slowly, then melted butter. Sift flour, cocoa and 

baking powder and add to egg mixture, beating well. Dissolve soda in 

sour milk and add alternately to cake mixture with the hot water. Cook 

in a moderate oven.

Filling----

2 tbsp. cocoa                    1 cup hot water

2 tbsp. butter                    1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. corn starch

     Mix altogether and boil until thick, stirring constantly, and spread 

in centre and on top of cake.

---Mrs. D. H. Green.

The Verdict:

So as soon as I went to make the cake batter, I noticed that I managed to pick the ONE RECIPE that was missing an ingredient. See, the first step is to beat the egg and add the sugar....but oh wait, there's no sugar on the ingredients list! I saw that most of the other cake recipes in the book called for 1 cup of sugar, so I went with that. 

Also, as a disclaimer, I have a weird Japanese measuring cup, so everything was measured by grams on my scale or in liquid milliliters. 

I baked the cake in my convection oven at 180C, which is 356F. It took about 35 minutes.

This cake is pretty good! The cake itself was very moist, and a little heavy. It is a bit bland, but its not surprising, considering it only had 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder. However, its not necessarily a bad thing. The filling is pretty sweet, so I was glad that the cake wasn't strongly flavored. The filling is kind of like a fudge sauce. Mr. Man said it tasted like hot chocolate. Its definitely not an amazing chocolate cake, but I could see this being great for wartime and it definitely wins for ease and budget. Overall, we all enjoyed this cake and we will definitely finish it, so 4 stars!

Modernized Recipe:

(Adapted from Navy League Chapter I.O.E.D. Victory Cook Book)

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cups flour

2 heaping teaspoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup sour milk (substitute buttermilk or 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar mixed with enough milk to make 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup hot water

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 cup hot water

1 cup brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180C or 355F. Grease a cake pan. It's helpful to line the bottom with paper, too.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg. Slowly beat in the sugar. Add the melted butter, being sure that its not too hot (otherwise it will cook the eggs).

3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder into the egg mixture. Beat to combine. It will be thick like cookie dough, but don't worry if you can't get everything combined.

4. Mix together the baking soda and sour milk. 

5. Alternate adding the milk mixture and hot water to the batter. Mix well to combine between each addition. The batter should be smooth and fairly runny.

6. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for about 30 - 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

7. Prepare the filling by mixing everything together and boiling until smooth and thick. Let it cool before putting it between cake layers and on top. Make sure the cake is cool before filling, too.