Twenty Five Days of Treats - Day 12 - and Giveaway Winner!

So today's treat is BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!!  Yep, my favorite birthday cake from when I was growing up.  It was one of the few things my mom made that was amazing (remember the butterscotch story?). This recipe was actually handed down from my great-grandmother, and it really is fantastic.

Edna Pearl's Red Devils Food Cake
2 c. flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten stiff as whipped cream
3 oz. baking chocolate, melted
3/4 c. buttermilk, or soured milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. boiling water

Preheat oven to 350.  If you don't have buttermilk on hand, you can make your own "soured milk" by adding 1 tablespoon vinegar to 1 cup milk.  Allow milk to stand on top of your stove while your oven preheats (speeds up the process and makes the milk REALLY nice and thick).

In large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Cream shortening and sugar, and slowly add beaten eggs.  Stir in melted chocolate.  Combine milk and vanilla.  Add milk mixture and dry ingredients alternately to chocolate mixture.  Then slowly add boiling water.

Bake in well-greased layer pans for 45 minutes.

Cool, then frost.  Allow to stand for 2 hours for color to develop.

If baked in a 9x13 pan, bake for 25-30 minutes.  Ten minutes before done, sprinkle with sugar and finish baking.  Top has a crispy crust and does not need to be frosted.

So obviously, I can't have this exact recipe any more. Here's how I've adapted it to make it safe:

SPH Chocolate Cake
1 box Betty Crocker (brand) Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake Mix OR Gluten Free Pantry (brand) Decadent Chocolate Cake mix
2 eggs, well beaten
1 T vanilla
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup buttermilk

Combine all ingredients in mixer bowl, beating until smooth.  Bake in greased layer cake pans according to package directions.

And this is the ultimate frosting!

Fluffy White (aka Gooey) Frosting
1 egg white, chilled
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. boiling water
1/4 t. cream of tartar


Combine egg white, sugar and cream of tartar in a mixer bowl.  Begin beating in boiling water.  Continue beating until very thick and fluffy.  Think egg whites with stiff peaks because this is a glorified meringue.  This recipe frosts two 9" layers.

After your cake layers have cooled, frost them with the Gooey Frosting.  If you'd like something a bit more Christmas-y, sprinkle the frosting with colored sugar.  If you have the silver sugar, the cake would look very snowy.  Even just plain, the frosting tends to look like snowdrifts.  My mom used to use a spoon and make little peaks all over the cake.  I chose not to - I was hungry!

No matter how you do it - this is the BEST birthday cake ever!

 ***GIVEAWAY IS EXPIRED***

And now on to our Giveaway WINNER!!! Congrats to Emily!  The "magic number" from random.org was 2.
Please email me at the address in the sidebar with your mailing address, and I will get these beauties shipped out to you ASAP!  Thank you all so much for your wonderful encouraging comments, and for liking and tweeting about me and the giveaway!  I am so grateful to be so blessed!