BVC Eats: Francine Genovaldi’s fudge cake

Francine was a gal I worked with in the typing pool, many years ago. We had a tradition in that pool where, anytime one of us had a birthday, everybody brought in goodies. There were twelve word processor operators, and often the birthdays came three or four to a month. Frequently I would come to work to find five full-size layer cakes, two batches of cookies, cheese, salami, crackers, corn chips, potato chips, a jar of olives, and oh yeah a lonely little plate of celery sticks. Our word processing center was very popular on those days.

This is Francine’s ultra-rich, moist, dark chocolate, sour cream cake.

Step 1
1/4 lb. (two sticks) butter
2 squares (two ounces) melted bitter chocolate
1 cup sugar
3 T water

Step 2
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs

Step 3
1 heaping cup of flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt

Step 4
1 tsp vanilla

1. Mix step 1 ingredients to smooth texture in double boiler.
2. Add steps 2, 3 and 4. Beat the hell out of them. (Low speed 1 minute, high speed 3 minutes)
3. Bake at 350^o for 30 minutes. Cool a few minutes. Remove from pans, cool completely. Frost with dark chocolate fudge frosting.

Jennifer’s Quick ’n Dirty Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting

12 oz dark chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli 60%)
16 oz good-quality sour cream, like Daisy brand

In a bowl, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring frequently.

Remove the chocolate from the nuke and temper it quickly to prevent too much thickening by stirring in a few tablespoons of sour cream.

Add the rest of the sour cream, stir thoroughly, chill if it’s too runny, then frost your cake. You can mix this up while your cake is cooling.

Francine’s benediction: “Eat, eat, enjoy, and get fat!”