All-Sports Widow

Fan Fare: An End-of-Season Party Treat

June 24, 2007 10:49 PM | 0 Comments

This evening, Austin's Little League team, coaches and family members congregated around a bonfire at Alki Beach to celebrate the end of the year. The chill from being drenched on the return trip home from the Mariners Baseball game was still seizing me, but I nonetheless persevered.

It was a potluck, and since I am a baker I decided to bring my Southern auntie's famous Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting, made from scratch of course. Instead of making a cake, however, I poured the batter into cupcake tins since they're easier to distribute in a picnic setting. Aunt Joan, pronounced in Deep Southern as two syllables - Jo-ON, is from Purvis, Mississippi, and I'll tell you she knows how to turn on an oven. Caroline artfully decorated the cupcakes with jelly beans that were left over from Easter. BTW, does anyone know the life expectancy of a jelly bean? Was I imperiling the health of our guests by using semi-ancient jelly beans? Our jelly bean designs were a combo of smiley faces and flowers; simple, yet elegant. I didn't want to mess with perfection, but I did see an intriguing approach to cupcakes in Real Simple, my favorite magazine of all time. (My fan Bryan insists that I am drawn to Real Simple because I have a real simple intellect, but my MENSA stature is widely known and flies in the face of this theory.) Back to the point, instead of cupcake tins, one Real Simple reader poured her batter into waffle ice cream cones and baked them. Astonishing! Edible tins! What a concept! Lord have mercy, what would Aunt Joan think of that??

Here's the recipe:

Aunt Joan's Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For cake, bake 30 minutes; for regular cupcakes, 20 minutes. Hint: Use the very best cocoa you can afford. I use Drost and it really makes a difference.

CAKE

Step 1
In saucepan bring to boil:
1 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 c of shortening (crisco)
1 c water
4 T cocoa

Step 2
Measure following ingredients into a large bowl:
2 c sugar
2 c flour

Step 3
Add Step 1 to Step 2 and mix well

Step 4
Add to above mixture:
1/2 c buttermilk
2 eggs
1 t soda
1 t vanilla

Step 5
Pour into greased or non-stick cake pan and bake.

ICING
When cake is completely cooled, ice with the following:

Step 1
Boil in a saucepan:
1 stick butter
4 T cocoa
1 T vanilla

Step 2
Pour hot ingredients into a large bowl of:
1/2 to 1 pound of powdered sugar

Step 3
Beat until smooth, adding small amounts of buttermilk until you achieve desired consistency.

Let me know how it turned out for you. Did you get some accolades???