in which I announce the winner of the chocolate cake contest
There were eighteen of them in all. Eighteen chocolate cakes. My husband is smiling…
The three finalists were *this close* but after several “tests” he finally declared a winner. I was excited because it was the easiest cake of any that I made.
I am including all the recipes because each of these were chosen as “favorite” by someone in my family. The first prize, of course, goes to the one my husband liked best {as this was the point} but I will be keeping all these recipes close at hand!
So. Without further ado:
third place:
submitted by Carrie. This is wonderfully delicious (and is the one my sister-in-law liked best!) and easy-peasy to make. (As you can tell from this lovely recipe.)
Second place:
submitted by Stephanie @ modernchristianwoman.com. This recipe uses a few dishes but oh, the gooey-deliciousness is worth the extra dish-washing. (this was my father’s favorite!)
FIRST PLACE:
submitted by Erin. Oh, my. This cake is so rich it’s almost black. The flavor is so perfect, my husband almost sighed as he ate it.
And the best part? Do you see that directions? Mix, bake, WHALLA! perfection.
I made it with whole wheat flour and my husband didn’t even notice! I used maple syrup and oh, yumminess. I used my homemade mayonnaise and it made it even better. Oh, delight.
And now… the prizes.
I promised prizes. And I’m so excited about them!
For the second and third place winners:
my favorite kitchen tool ever. A pan-scraper.
My sister-in-law showed up one day and said, “Tasha, you need this.” plunked it down on my kitchen counter and I don’t know if I have ever properly thanked her.
Small but priceless. You’ll love it, I promise.
For the first place winner:
This darling apron. I loved it so much I bought one for myself too. I mean, seriously, it has ruffles!
A nice heavy-duty wooden spoon. (you can never have too many wooden spoons!)
And, of course, a pan scraper because I love them so much.
Just for fun: an honorable mention
Have you ever made a pudding cake? You should definitely try it. Make sure you have some vanilla ice cream around to have on the side! Thank you, Darlene, for sharing this lovely recipe…
Awesome, so much chocolate 🙂
I just tried the1st place one, but it tastes like…mayonaise. Is it supposed to ?
I have heard say that american mayonaise ‘isn’t mayonaise’ compared to the ones from Belgium, so maybe that’s it. 🙂
How do you make mayonnaise?
Thanks 🙂
Naomi
hmm… I did taste the tiniest bit of mayo the first time I made it, but my husband, who didn’t know it contained any, did not.
The second time I made it, I didn’t taste any. The third time, I used my homemade mayo and definitely did not taste anything.
I’ll look up the recipe for my mayo this afternoon and pass it on. 🙂
How exciting! This just made my day – I don’t think I’ve ever placed in a contest before. 🙂 Thanks so much – and I can’t wait to try these other cakes!
Yay! So glad. 🙂 Your cake was delicious!
My mother jokes that my father asked her to make him a chocolate cake every week as part of their wedding vows, so we *always* had chocolate cake in the house growing up. That said, my father preferred his own mother’s recipe. Grandmother Avery was a wonderful woman, very refined, gracious, a magnificent pianist and an absolutely horrid cook. The cakes were dry as dust.. even the frosting was dry! I’m sorely tempted to make that mayo cake and bring it down next time we visit;-)
Too funny! If my husband had thought of it, I’m sure he would have tried to put that in the wedding vows too…
Boy! Those all sound delicious. I’ve never tried a cake with mayo in. For some reason I just can’t wrap my head around that…but I guess I’ll have to try it now 😛
My Grandma, who stopped by yesterday to taste the “three best”, said, “I’ve heard tell of mayo cake for years and years but never tried one. How crazy I was…” (she picked that cake as her favorite as well!)
I love that all the ingredients are things I keep around the house. 🙂