Chocolate Sybil Cake

I asked my wife what dessert she would like for a mothers day meal, she said that chocolate is always good.  I visited the Foodnetwork.com site and performed a search on chocolate.  I started looking at the number of user review stars each recipes received and at the reviewers comments - I settled on a Paula Deen recipe for Chocolate Sybil Cake.

This recipe looked good and there was only one item I needed to purchase at the store: a 16-ounce can of Hershey’s chocolate syrup.  After my trip to the store, I set out a stick of butter and four eggs to warm to room temperature before I started mixing.

I used our KitchenAid stand mixer with the spatula beater bar and creamed the 1 /2-cup of butter with the one-cup of sugar for several minutes until fluffy.  I added the four eggs one at a time while beating the mixture well after each egg.  I added the salt and baking powder to the mix (I need to look for some different baking powder without aluminum, which is bad for you).  I added the one-cup of flour and continued to mix.  For the final ingredients, I added the can of chocolate syrup and the teaspoon of vanilla extract.

I poured the cake batter into a greased and floured glass Pyrex 9x13 inch baking pan and placed it in a 350-degree oven for thirty minutes.  While the cake cooked, I went outside and planted a cherry tomato plant that will sit on our patio.

A few minutes before the cake was finished cooking, I was back in the kitchen and saw that while the cake is baking, you mix the frosting and pour in on the cake when it comes out of the oven.  I had missed that step!  It really does pay to read the entire recipe before you begin cooking.

I quickly followed the instructions for the frosting by heating one stick of butter with 1 /2-cup of chocolate chips, one-cup of sugar, and 1 /3-cup of evaporated milk.  I brought this too a boil for about three minutes then added the vanilla and 1 /2-cup of chopped pecans.

The cake had been out of the oven for about a minute when I poured the hot frosting over the top of the cake.  With everything being nice and hot, it was easy to get an even coating of the frosting over the entire cake.

We each sampled a piece of the cake with a little bit of vanilla ice cream after dinner last night.  I was surprised that the cake had compressed to about an inch thick after pouring on the frosting.  The resulting cake is a dense but very moist cake with a strong chocolate flavor.  It is very good and I would rate it four out of five stars.  For an absolute chocolate overload, I think we both still prefer the Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Find the recipe at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chocolate-sybil-cake-recipe/index.html

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell