Yes, it’s a thing! Monday is National Chocolate Cake Day, a day worth celebrating, to my taste. Of course you can find spectacular cakes at local restaurants and bakeries, as we have been told about by a local food public relations firm staffer, who we have to thank for this story idea. But, being the daughter of a home economist, we are used to homemade chocolate cakes. So here are some ideas for making your own cake from my sister Joanna, a chocolate enthusiast who prefers straight, unadorned chocolate without any fancy additions. Also, an architect, she’s built more than her share of spectacular cake confections, some of which, she shared with the Buzz.
Joanna highly recommends the Devil’s Food Cake from Rose Levy Bernanbaum’s cookbook, “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes,” published in 2009.
“I like this cake, because you can dial it up or down,” Joanna explained. “Iced with the midnight ganache (called for by Beranbaum in her book) it’s a very fancy cake. Or, for a family birthday, I like to use a classic chocolate buttercream icing that reminds everyone of the kind we ate as kids, growing up in the 1960s. This cake holds together well, it’s moist and it’s just a totally lovable cake.”
Below are Joanna’s photos of the cake with various icings she devised for different occasions.
