Chocolate Mayo Cake and My Lucky Boy

Avery is without a doubt, the luckiest person I know. He must have been kissed by angels at birth because he has a really intoxicating blend of charm, good looks and amazing luck. A lot of it stems from how other's oriented his personality is. He seeks out ways to make everyone around him happy and then basks in the communal good feelings. It's a neat gift. The down-side is that he doesn't have to try very hard to be likable, things come easy to him and he can get away with a lot more than his comparatively sullen older sibling.

 My younger boys are currently obsessed with Sam Stern - he published his first cook book at fourteen years of age and has since published four more. Now nineteen, Sam is a proponent of real food and an all around cool guy. My kids couldn't have picked a better role model to look up to. We took three of his books out from the library and everyone was excited to get cooking.

Avery's luck held yesterday when he decided to make a Chocolate Mayo Cake from Get Cooking and to rely on his "great cooking skills" over a thorough reading of the recipe. For anyone else in the family it would have been a disaster - for Avery it worked. His big mistake was pouring the frosting over the cake when it was still hot from the oven. Instead of a separated mess, he created a dense, rich chocolate glaze that my husband claims is the best he's tasted. See, he's lucky!

Chocolate Mayo Cake


Cake:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup boiling water
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8x8 pan. 

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar. Beat in mayo. It will look lumpy, don't worry.

Pour boiling water over cocoa and vanilla in a heat proof bowl. Stir to dissolve.

Beat this liquid into the flour mixture until well blended. 

Pour batter into greased and floured layer cake pan. 

Bake at 350°F. for about 40 minutes.

Fudge Frosting:

2 1/3 cup confectioners sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

8 TBL butter/margarine

3-4 TBL water

Sift sugar and cocoa in a bowl.

Melt butter and water without boiling.

Beat gradually into sugar mix until smooth and not too runny.

Pour over cake or spread it around neatly.

*You might not need all the liquid*

Sorry there has been a lot of kids and food posts this week. I haven't been feeling my best and with recovering from surgery it's best not to push too hard :-)