Mrs Weatherstone’s Famous Chocolate Birthday Cake (plus–A few notes about production quality)

So, I have mild to moderate hearing loss and really bad tinnitus so it is hard for me to hear the imperfections when I am editing. If you’re wondering what it sounds like in my brain/ears all the time–it is like when you leave the kitchen sink faucet running at full blast all the time. So I hope you will forgive the weird little pops and hisses and noises that I can’t quite hear, or edit out. I’m learning Adobe Audition on the fly. 😬. Also, I have found that despite having two really great microphones, but no truly silent place to record, my Pixel 5 is what I record on, then I import it into Audition to mix it.

This week on the menu is the famous Chocolate Cake that started this whole thing. Here’s the recipe (my notes are in ( ) and bolded:

(Mrs. Weatherstone’s Famous) Chocolate Cake.

2 c. sugar

1/2 c shortening (I use butter, unsalted if you use unsalted butter, then add in a half tsp of salt into the dry ingredients)

4 squares baker’s chocolate (this is the unsweetened chocolate and I use the Baker’s brand as well because it is what is familiar)

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. strong coffee (warm espresso)

1/2 c. sour milk (butter milk works just fine)

2 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Bake in tube (bundt) pan 50-60 minutes at 350.

Notes by the author: 

if you don’t want to forget to put the baking soda in (which, believe me, is a thing that happens and you end up with the biggest brownie ever and it does not taste great,) mix the flour and baking soda together and set aside while the oven is warming up or while you’re melting the 4 oz of baker’s chocolate.  Add salt in if you are using unsalted butter.

Cream together the sugar and shortening, add in the eggs and vanilla (I like to add more vanilla than the recipe calls for)

If you don’t have buttermilk you can make sour milk by adding a bit of lemon juice to regular milk but butter milk is a bit richer. You could also try yogurt–that 10% milk fat vanilla greek yogurt might really be awesome in this cake–I’ll let you know if I try it.