Note Quite SMS: White Cake with Chocolate Frosting

This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays Treat was Fluffy Coconut Cake with Passion Fruit Filling. I didn’t exactly make the recipe in the book. The frosting contained two kinds of coconut (cream and flakes) and was made with cream cheese. Josh doesn’t like coconut and I am not big on cream cheese icing. I mean, I’ll have a few bites of carrot cake or red velvet cake with it, but it’s definitely not my first choice. I wasn’t really sure if this would be a recipe that would work for our household until I realized the cake was a regular white cake – no coconut – and we both like a good white cake, so I decided to make the cake, or rather cupcakes, and frost it with something else. Of course I didn’t get this great idea until the last minute.



I decided on a simple dark chocolate frosting, which was excellent with the cake. The cake was fluffy as promised and super-yummy. I would say it’s a great vehicle for almost any frosting. This recipe rated an 8.5 for Deliciousness and a 3.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.42. Many thanks to Karen of Karen’s Cookies, Cakes and More for selecting this cake. You can find the recipe here on her site and visit the Sweet Melissa site to see the other bakers’ cakes. My apologies to the group for not really making anything close to the recipe in the book.

Miss Irene Thompson’s Dark Chocolate Frosting from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes

3.5 ounces fine-quality unsweetened or 99% cacao chocolate, chopped
3 ounces dark chocolate, 60% to 62% cacao, chopped
1.7 ounces (3 ½ tablespoons) butter, at 65 to 75 degrees
1 cup (8 fluid ounces) corn syrup
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

In the top of a double boiler, set over hot, not simmering, water heat the chocolate and butter. (Don’t let the bottom of the container touch the water.) Stir often with a silicone spatula until almost completely melted. Remove the chocolate mixture from the heat and with the silicone spatula, stir until completely melted. Stir in the syrup until fully incorporated. Stir in the vanilla. The frosting keeps for three days at room temperature, for three weeks refrigerated, and for six months frozen. Note: the frosting will be very fluid immediately after making it. The recipe in RHC calls for the first layer to be poured over the cake. To frost cupcakes (or for the second layer of frosting on a cake), you should let the frosting cool for about half an hour or until it is a spreadable consistency.