Bear Cuisine: Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Olive oil sounds as if it wouldn't be such a great ingredient for a cake. Believe me this is one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever eaten-moist, dense and so, so chocolaty. When I say this is a great cake, believe me. Usually, I don't even like cake and I couldn't stop eating this one. Before I forget this is another of Christine Hickman's recipes. What a treasure she is.

CHOCOLATE OLIVE OIL CAKE*

4 cups unbleached all=purpose flour
2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 cups cold water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour 2 9-inch cake or spring form pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together into a large bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer. With a hand mixer or the standing mixer on low speed, beat in the oil, vinegar, vanilla and water until smooth. Pour the mixture into the prepared pans.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake. The cake should be firm to the touch.

Place the cake pans on cooking racks and cool for 15 to 20 minutes, then remove the cake from the pans to cool completely.

Makes 2 9-inch layers.

* This recipe is for high-altitude cooking. (Santa Fe is at 7000 feet above sea level.) At sea level, use 2 teaspoons baking soda and 2 tablespoons white vinegar. Decrease flour to 3 1/2 cups.

I frosted the cake with Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting from Anne Byrn's The Cake Mix Doctor. Not too sweet with just a hint of tanginess from the sour cream. Perfect for this cake.

SOUR CREAM CHOCOLATE FROSTING

4 tablespoons butter
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, finally chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
21/4 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons hot water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place the butter and chocolate in a small saucepan and melt over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir the mixture until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Let cool slightly, then stir in the sour cream.

Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl With an electric mixer on low speed, add half the confectioner's sugar and 1 tablespoon hot water, beating to incorporate. Then add the remaining sugar and water and continue beating until the frosting comes together into a spreadable consistency without lumps. Stop the machine, add the vanilla, and blend well, 30 seconds.

Use at once.

This was all that was left after our dinner party