It's a good day for cake

My husband loves cake; he loves it more than pie, cookies, or ice cream.  The trouble is, most cakes make too much for two people, especially when the cook (me) prefers cookies, ice cream, and pie.  Some time ago, realizing I don't bake Cliff a cake often, I randomly typed "small cake recipe" into a Google search and struck gold.  I found an eight- or nine-inch-square cake, so it isn't so difficult to get it eaten while it's fresh, moist and flavorful.  It's the best made-from-scratch cake I've ever baked, and I can easily eat more than my half of it before it's gone.  We prefer vanilla icing on chocolate cake, although I did try the chocolate icing once and it, too, is good; it makes more icing than is needed, though.  

I want to share the link to give credit where credit is due, and also because one of these days I'm going to check out more of her recipes.  It's Bunny's Warm Oven.

Small Chocolate Cake

This is a delicious small 9 inch chocolate cake. The cake is very moist and can be served with or without frosting!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword #chocolate cake, chocolate snack cake, nine inch chocolate snack cake, nine inch snack cake,

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Servings 9

Ingredients

Cake Batter:

• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 egg room temperature
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 Tablespoons cocoa
• 1 Teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 Teaspoon salt

Chocolate Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

• For The Cake:
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  Place the water and butter in a medium bowl. Beat the ingredients together with an electric mixer until the butter is melted.

  Add the egg and vanilla to the bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg and vanilla into the ingredients in the bowl until well incorporated. Place the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in another medium bowl, stir the ingredients to combine them. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat for 2 minutes.

  Pour the batter into a greased 9 inch baking pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
• For The Frosting
• Melt the butter in a medium size saucepan. Stir in the cocoa. Alternately add the powdered sugar and milk to the bowl, beating to a spreading consistency. Add a small amount of milk if necessary to achieve the spreading consistency you want. Stir in the vanilla. 

  
  

Now I am stumped, because starting at this point, all lines are double-spaced.  I know it was something I did, but it's easier to leave it alone rather than spend two hours trying to figure out how to change it.  

As for books we're reading around here, I just finished the latest John Grisham book, The Judges List.  I haven't "loved" all of Grisham's books, but this one was a page-turner and I finished it in three days.  I seldom spend large portions of my day reading, but I had to pull myself away from this one, anxious to see how it would end.

Cliff just finished "A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka", and assured me that I needed to read the book.  He promised me I'd love it.  "Lev Golinkin's memoir is the vivid, darkly comic, and poignant story of a young boy in the confusing and often chilling final decade of the Soviet Union. It's also the story of Lev Golinkin, the American man who finally confronts his buried past by returning to Austria and Eastern Europe to track down the strangers who made his escape possible . . . and say thank you:"

Lately I'm reading when I should be doing other things, but it's that time of year.  Reading a book is a cheap way to have a harmless adventure basking in the exploits of other people.