Fireworks Decorate A Wisconsin, Swedish, French-Chocolate Cake For A Patriotic 4th of July

It's patriotic season, colored in red, white, and blue, and punctuated with Memorial Day, Flag Day, and the 4th of July! Wisconsin kids ride decorated bikes behind fire engines, play baseball, eat strawberry shortcake, and ooh- and aah- at fireworks. My daughter is showing her patriotic spirit by drawing frosted fireworks on her practice entry in the July Dane County Fair. Lauren is 9 and July's fair will be the first in which she competes in the 4-H Club cake decorating contest.

Lauren's official entry will be frosted styrofoam, but for these practice cakes we decorate real cakes! Well, I'm baking the cakes and Lauren is playing artiste with tubes of edible color. Pictured is our first 4th of July cake. I used Wanda Peterson Mango's recipe for French Chocolate Cake. Wanda's description of this cake is right on," Tender, moist, light --this chocolate cake has all the things that make a great chocolate cake. It's not real sweet, but this cake has a real natural cocoa flavor. This was often made for our birthdays when we were growing up."  The Peterson family also made this French chocolate cake at their family-owned Grandma's Swedish Bakery and Restaurant in Door County, Wisconsin. Click on "Continue reading..."for the French chocolate cake recipe.

I found this recipe for French chocolate cake in the cookbook, Grandma's Home Kitchen: Where lessons and life were mixed with love. The book is more than a compilation of recipes. The chapter introductions recount a way of life in mid-20th century, rural Wisconsin: large families, farm chores, and seasons of weather and life changing in a natural rhythm. The particular Wisconsin family depicted in the book is of Swedish heritage, and the authentic Swedish recipes give the cookbook a slightly Swedish flavor. But the stories, the people, and the recipes themselves couldn't be more American. And despite this recipe's name, French chocolate cake, it's a perfect choice for a 4th of July celebration.

At least I think it's a good choice for a 4th of July cake because of the way Lauren tends to decorate cakes: LOTS of frosting. (See her Dionysus cake; it's half frosting.) Lauren's cakes tend to end up super-sweet despite her insistence that she doesn't really like frosting on cakes. So when I saw that Wanda Peterson's claim that this cake wasn't overly sweet I chose IT! Lauren was concerned that it wouldn't be sweet enough, but it was. The only reason you don't see more frosting on Lauren's cake is that we were pressed for time. The master artiste had to decorate in a hurry. The taste surely didn't suffer from the rush.

Here's Wanda Peterson's recipe for French chocolate cake:

• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour milk (I used sour cream)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (at Lauren's request, I used almond extract)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch cake pan or two 8x8-inch pans.

Combine boiling water and cocoa in a small bowl; stir and set aside. Separate eggs and put egg whites into a medium mixing bowl; set aside. (Do not microwave and feed yolks to the dog as I did - you will need the yolks later. Honor-recovery tip: turn mishap into a training exercise. Explain to daughter that this error demonstrates the importance of first reading the entire recipe before proceeding with any mixing. It also demonstrates the explosive potential of eggs in microwaves. Note: always cover egg yolks or whites when microwaving or they will explode, coating the entire inside of the microwave with sticky egg. If this happens clean microwave immediately else the coating will harden into rock-like enamel. There are no exceptions to this outcome; it happens every time. This afternoon's explosion demonstration was appropriate because our cake's theme was exploding fireworks.)

Put egg yolks, softened margarine (or butter), and sugar into a large mixing bowl; cream together. Add cocoa mixture and beat slowly.

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add flour mixture and sour milk to batter alternately, about 1/3 of each at a time, and beat with each addition.

Beat egg whites until stiff and peaks form when beaters are raised. Gently fold vanilla into egg whites. Fold egg whites and vanilla into chocolate batter very gently with a large slotted spoon until egg whites are just incorporated. Use large, folding motions so air bubbles in egg whites do not break. Do not actually mix!

Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and bake for 30-35 minutes (25-30 for small pans) or until cake pops back when lightly touched in center or toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center. Cool on rack.

Cake may be frosted with Fluffy Frosting for Chocolate Cake or served with your favorite whipped topping or ice cream.

We didn't put any frosting on our cake because Lauren wanted to decorate it only with different colors of tube frosting.  Next time we make this cake hopefully we won't be on a mission, and I can try the Peterson family's fluffy frosting for chocolate cake. Wanda writes, "Chocolate cake needs a frosting that is not so sweet that it interferes with the taste of the rich chocolate. This one is just right and also has fewer calories than buttercream frostings."

Fluffy Frosting for Chocolate Cake:

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 Tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix sugar, water, and corn syrup in a saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and cook on medium heat until syrup spins a 6- to 8-inch thread. To do this, hold up metal spoon and let syrup drip from the spoon. As syrup cooks it will go from drips to a short string, then a long, fine string. This takes about 3-5 minutes.

While the syrup is cooking, beat egg whites until stiff enough to hold peaks when beaters are raised. Pour cooked syrup into egg whites very slowly, beating continually. Continue to beat until frosting holds peaks. Blend in vanilla.

Spread frosting on cooled cake and swirl frosting in a pretty design with a spatula.

Comments

[Jordans 5]

Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

[wisconsin fireworks]

Looks very delicious, will try to make on this 4th of July! Thanks!

[ann]

the french one looks icky!