Devil's Food Cake

On July 29th, MDS turned 39. To celebrate this milestone, we had the usual birthday dinner of Mock Chicken Cordon Bleu. And for dessert, I made cupcakes from this delicious Devil's Food Cake recipe. Now, you could use a boxed mix, but this recipe is so easy, there is no reason to use boxed mixes. Most cake recipes are versatile enough to make in any size pan by adjusting the baking time. I went with cupcakes for this recipe because sometimes when I was a kid, Mom would make cupcakes for birthdays. For frosting, I simply used nutella. The resulting cupcakes were excellent.

July is also the birthday month of my Godfather, Jim O'Brien. Recently, Mom and I were able to make the trip to Lafayette, Indiana to visit Jim and his wife, my Godmother Eileen. I brought some of these cupcakes to celebrate Jim's birthday. Of course, it brought up old memories of the many birthday cakes that Mom made when we were kids. Below is a picture of Jim, Eileen, my brother Joe, my sister Megan, and me. It appears to be Thanksgiving, due to the pumpkin pie and apple pie, but may also be a celebration of my first birthday due to the candle in the apple pie.

Devil's Food Cake 

• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp. soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 3 square unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour with sugar, soda and salt. Place shortening, softened to room temperature, in a mixing bowl and stir to soften. Sift in the dry ingredients. Add 1 cup milk. Beat for 2 minutes with a mixer. Add eggs, melted chocolate, vanilla and the remaining milk. Beat one more minute. Pour batter into greased pan. If using 2- 9-inch prepared pan, bake for 35 to 40 minutes. If using cupcake pans, bake for 17 to 23 minutes. Allow to cool before frosting. Enjoy!