Devil's Food Cake

I am a student at UCSD. I get my hair cut in La Jolla. How does that work? I'm supposed to be a starving student and La Jolla is home to many a manicured housewives with husbands who finance their monthly hair style changes, nail polish, Range Rover (if children are in the scene) or BMW convertible (if rugrats are not present), etc. I live in Del Mar, again, not fitting for the broke college student.

Let me explain, I live with 4 other roommates in a 2 bedroom house. We live a block from the beach, but the 2 bedroom beach shack, as I've come to call it, is inhabited by 5 people. I'd say it is unbearable if I wanted to be over dramatic, but it's not. It is bearable enough. Yes, there is sand all over the front door walkway, there are ALWAYS dishes in the sink, we did have rats over the winter, the house flooded in January and there is limited fridge space. Beyond that, it's quite cozy. There is always someone to talk to. It's saving grace is that it's temporary. I can get through the filthy kitchen and unswept linoleum "wood" floors knowing that it is temporary. Furthermore, I've had drilled into me that I must live in some sort of uncomfortable situation in my early twenties so that later when I actually have a "good job" and a "nice place" I'll appreciate it.

That's a bit of a problem, because as a freshman at UCSD, I lived in a 3 year old dorm, with an ocean view veranda, we had a house keeper, or maid, whatever you choose to call it, once a week. The walls were stark white, the carpets impeccably clean. We would joke that we would never again live in a place that nice. What is sad is that it's true.

So here I am, sitting in my front living room. In the beach shack we had 2 living rooms, until Matt moved in. He didn't want to share a room with a girl, or anyone for that matter, so he converted the back living room into his quarters. So now we have 1 living room, in the front of the house. The lighting in here is great and in the winter it was perfect because the heater is in here, we would turn it on and curl up to read, study, eat, or just hang out. I sit here now, drinking my jasmine iced tea, spiked with amaretto, I'm waiting for my hair appointment.

Devil's Food Cake.

This recipe is for a baby cake. I made it as a gift and did not want to make a huge cake. I had a glass pyrex tupperware that I used to bake it in and it was perfect.

for cake:

1/4 cup unsalted butter

2 oz unsweetened chocolate

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup warm water

1 cup + 2 tbsp. all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbsp. milk

1/2 tsp. white vinegar

for frosting

1/4 cup unsalted butter

3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

3 tbsp milk

5 oz. bittersweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease and flour a cake tin, either one 9" tin or a deeper pyrex glass bowl will do.

Melt butter and chocolate in a saucepan together, until just melted. Be careful so as to not burn the chocolate or butter. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Meanwhile, beat egg and sugar together until light in color and a slightly fluffy, so it's aerated. Add cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture. Mix well. Add warm water. It is important not to add the chocolate mixture while it's hot or the water too hot as this will cook the raw egg and result in an eggy taste in your cake, which is undesirable.

In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda and salt together. Add to the chocolate mixture and incorporate well.

Mix the milk and vinegar in a cup and then add to the mixture.

Once the batter is ready, pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 mins if in a shallow pan or up to 45 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean in a deeper pan.

While cake bakes, make frosting.

Melt butter in a small saucepan, add cocoa powder to melted butter and mix well until smooth. Add powdered sugar and milk alternating between the two.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and add to the powdered sugar mixture.

Frost cake as desired, either just on top and sides or cut in half, horizontally and frost. It is much cleaner to do a crumb coat, that is one thin coat with a butter knife, that is different knife than the one you will use for the top coat so as to not have cake crumbs visible in the top coat of frosting of the cake.