The TCL Library is taking us to the kitchen!  Everyone has at least one cookbook put out by a church or community group,  with spiral binding and food-spattered pages full of cooking favorites.  Two women have taken the best of the best of these books and turned it into “Potluck Paradise.” Authors Rae Eighmey and Debbie Miller pulled 125 recipes from the Minnesota Historical Society’s collection of community cookbooks and dropped by the TCL Kitchen to show us how to make Crazy Chocolate Cake!

Crazy Chocolate Cake
Ingredients: Serves 8
-1 1/2 cups sifted flour
-1 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-3 tablespoons cocoa powder
-1/2teaspoon salt
-1/3 cup all-purpose vegetable oil such as Wesson
-1 tablespoon vinegar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1 cup milk

To Prepare: Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt into an ungreased 8×8-inch pan. Make three depressions in these ingredients. Put oil in one, vinegar in another and vanilla in the third. Gently pour milk over the entire pan and carefully stir with a fork until ingredients are well blended into a slightly lumpy batter. Bake until cake is firm in the center, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool and frost with Chocolate Cream Frosting.

Chocolate Cream Frosting
Ingredients: Yield: enough to frost 2 (8×8-inch) cakes
-3 tablespoons butter
-3 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
-1 cup brown sugar
-1/2cup water
-2 to 3 cups sifted powdered sugar
NOTE: Divide recipe amounts in half for Crazy Chocolate Cake or store leftover
frosting in refrigerator for up to a week.

To Prepare: In a 2-quart saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly.  Add brown sugar and water, increase heat to medium and bring to boiling point, stirring from time to time. Boil 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm. Add enough sifted powdered sugar to make a spreading consistency.

For more information on “Potluck Paradise,” click here!

Related Links:
Minnesota Historical Society