Chocolate Medallion Cake with Mocha Cooked Frosting

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This is my personal favorite as far as chocolate cakes are concerned. I haven’t made it in a long while because we usually pass over it in favor of the easier Texas Sheet Cake. I usually don’t have buttermilk hanging around the fridge either, as I do sour cream, which keeps longer. In a pinch, you could probably add some milk to sour cream and wind up with the same result. For Yona’s birthday cake, I decided that it was time to revive this favorite recipe of mine. The original comes from my treasured loose-leaf book of collected Florence Hanford recipes. She was a television cook sponsored by The Philadelphia Electric Company and predated Julia Child on television by a few years. Her cake recipes, or at least every one I have made, are superb. I love the Mocha Cooked Frosting as well. It uses regular sugar, whips up miraculously fluffy, and is not as sweet and gooey/greasy as vanilla buttercream. I prefer it any day over regular buttercream icing. One caveat, however, is that this frosting cannot be put through a decorating tube. No matter how lump-free you think you have gotten the paste, there is always at least one small lump to get caught and gum up the works. Small lumps like these are not detectable in the mouth feel.

Yona’s Noah’s Ark cake is made from a single batch baked in two 9 x 13-inch rectangular pans. The recipe also makes a 9-inch round layer cake. On top of this, I placed a date bread, baked in a regular loaf pan, and iced with vanilla buttercream. The roof is made from graham crackers. I made the same type of cake for Izzy’s birthday when she was two.

Chocolate Medallion Cake

• 2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup (half stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup Crisco
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• non-stick vegetable spray

Sift together flour and salt and set aside.

In electric mixer, cream butter and Crisco together. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Blend baking soda into buttermilk in a cup large enough to allow the mixture to expand.

Alternately add sifted dry ingredients and buttermilk into creamed mixture.

Stir cocoa and water into a smooth paste and add to the batter.

Blend in vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Pour batter into 2 9-inch layer cake pans which have been sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with waxed paper that has been flipped over to grease on both sides.

Bake at 350°F. for 25 to 30 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool.

This cake and frosting will freeze.

Mocha Cooked Frosting

• 3 Tbsp. all-purpose frosting
• 2/3 cup milk
• 5 Tbsp. Crisco
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 4 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
• 1 Tbsp. instant coffee
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Place flour in a small saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to bubble and a smooth thick paste is formed. Cool.

In an electric mixer, cream Crisco and butter, sugar, cocoa and coffee until light and fluffy.

Add vanilla.

Add cooled paste, and whip until all the sugar is dissolved and the frosting is light and fluffy and of spreading consistency.

This frosting will freeze.