One of my favorite things about living in the Midwest are summer storms. Thankfully, we’re usually spared the scary green skies of tornadoes (knock on wood) and instead treated to lightning shows and rumbles of thunder that make the rarely-used china in our cabinets rattle.
My daughter, M, is not as big a fan. She has a book called Thunder Cake., which frequently surfaces when a storm hits. In it, a grandma distracts her granddaughter into being brave in the face of a thunderstorm by getting her to assist in baking a “Thunder Cake”, which apparently tastes best when baked during a storm.
Of course, the cake is multilayered chocolate and smothered in a chocolate frosting, topped with strawberries. What else would you expect from a Thunder Cake? The book has a cake recipe in the back of it, but during our most recent storm M begged and begged me to make a Thunder Cake, so we turned to my finely tuned chocolate cake recipe. Based off of a wacky cake recipe from my great grandmother, I’ve refined it over years of baking and this time we topped it with a newer chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe.
The result is a deeply rich but not too-sweet treat. I will put aside all humility – it’s the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. There, I said it. And with the potential for cake, M isn’t quite so scared when the thunder rolls in.
Thunder Cake
8-10
servings15
minutes40
minutesThis chocolate cake is deeply chocolatey. It makes a beautiful 2-layered cake (8 or 9 inches) or 24 cupcakes. The oil keeps the cake tender and moist, and the sour cream adds a depth of flavor beyond what butter can achieve.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa (Dutch processed preferred), sifted
1 1/2 teas. baking powder
1 teas. baking soda
3/4 teas. sea salt
1 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 teas. vanilla extract
3/4 cup boiling water
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting8 oz block of cream cheese, room temp
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup half and half or heavy cream
2 tbsp. room temperature butter
1 teas. vanilla
1/4 teas. salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
2 1/2 – 4 cups powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you like things)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease two 8″ or 9″ round baking pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line the bottoms with parchment. Alternately, line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt and mix to combine.
- In another large bowl, mix together the sour cream, milk, oil and vanilla until smooth. Add the dry ingredients in two batches – it will be very thick. With the mixer going, add the boiling water to the batter. Now it will look very thin – it’s okay, it’s supposed to look that way.
- Divide batter into pans – if making cupcakes, fill only to just above half full.
- For cake rounds, bake for 32-36 minutes, until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean. For the cupcakes, bake for 15-20 minutes.
- Allow cakes to cool completely on a cooling rack then turn out and proceed with frosting/decorating.
- While cakes are cooling, make the frosting. In a small bowl, combine the chocolate chips and cream – microwave in 15 sec blasts until melted OR melt over a double boiler until smooth.
- In a large bowl, with a hand mixer, mix the cream cheese until smooth. Add the butter, vanilla and salt and combine. With the mixer running, add the chocolate mixture.
- Add in the cocoa powder and then, 1/2 cup at a time, the powdered sugar, to your level of desired sweetness. Chill frosting until ready to decorate the cake (it will firm up in the fridge, so you may need to whip it up with the mixer to get it smooth again or let it sit out at room temp for a few minutes).
