Well! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I brought my laptop with me, and didn’t open it once. Oops. This year we headed back to New York for the holiday (we flip flop Thanksgiving and Christmas each year). It was a nice few days. My family on both sides is Italian, which always means lots of food, wine, and noise. Brett and I ran for wine (a delicious Pinot Noir called Sebastiani), bagels (nothing like a NY bagel) and to the supermarket because I decided at 9am I was going to bake a spread of desserts for the afternoon (at my grandfathers) and evening (coffee, more wine, and dessert at my mom’s). Brett’s request was his favorite – black bottom cupcakes. Of my own accord, I decided to take a page from Spaghetti and try out Giulia’s Hot Pink Cake.

Of all people, I love a good chocolate cake. I am all about healthy, fulfilling, delicious food – but I have my vice, and it’s chocolate. Chocolate bars, cupcakes, cake, ice cream, brownies, you name it – I’ll eat it. Like her, I too am quite opposed to eating a Valentine’s Day dinner in a restaurant. I’d much rather cook a nice quiet meal for the both of us, that we can enjoy with our own wine that isn’t costing an arm and a leg (and not paying for a babysitter) and we can throw on pj’s and relax on the couch with the rest of the bottle afterwards.

This cake was so delicious. It was definitely a hit. After a long day and heavy foods, this cake was just what everyone needed. I’d never used parchment paper before, and I now understand why it called for it. The batter ends up so thin that I needed that support of the paper to get it out to cool it on the racks. It was very full-flavored, but it had a light, airy texture to it that melted in my mouth. It didn’t make its way onto the table until after 9, but we all ate it. I did avoid the food coloring, and Giulia was right – it never looked like a “pretty” cake, I don’t know if the icing was a little too thin and didn’t quite look how I wanted, but hell, it was so good no one cared!

~Hot Pink Cake~
Cake:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, left out of fridge for about 30 minutes
1 stick butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup whole milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter and flour two 8″ baking pans and line with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Add eggs, butter, milk, and vanilla and beat at a medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until all ingredients are combined and the cocoa bits are smoothed out. Stir in the boiling water. Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 degrees until a cake tester comes out with moist crumbs, about 30-35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pans, then transfer to cooling racks. Wait until they have cooled completely before frosting.

For the frosting:
1 stick very soft butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk
1 tsp vanilla
a little too much red food dye (optional!)

Mix all ingredients with an electric mixer at low speed until creamy. Add more milk if necessary. The trick is for the icing to be not too thin and not too goopy.

Yield: enough for 1 8-inch cake or 24 cupcakes