Happy Birthday Cake to Me...with Duke's Mayo....

Chocolate, Coconut, Mousse and Cream Cheese to boot. Make a wish!!!

I decided that I have made cakes for other people on their birthdays, but I had never made one for me. It was about time!!!
I fell prey to advertising, which doesn't happen all that often, but I saw an advertisement for Duke's Mayonnaise, using it to make a chocolate cake. I was intrigued and decided right then, to make that cake for my birthday. I bought a jar of Duke's on sale, kept it unopened until I was ready to make the cake, two months later.
Normally, I don't turn my oven on in the summer, but I made an exception, because it was for my birthday after all.
The cake I made wasn't exactly like the one in the commercial. I put chocolate mousse between the layers and frosted it with coconut icing. A variation on the theme, so to speak. I'm sure any mayo would work, but I need to give credit where credit is due.

Duke’s Chocolate Cake: Ingredients

6 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa

3 cups all purpose flour

1 Tbsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ½ cups Mayo

1 ½ tsp. Vanilla Extract (I just used 1 tsp.)

1 ½ cups cold water ( I used 1 cup cold water and ½ cup coconut milk)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour two 8” cake pans.

Shift cocoa, flour, baking soda, salt and sugar into a medium bow, mix well. Combine mayonnaise,  vanilla, water, Use and electric mixer at low speed. Once smooth, slowly add in dry mixture until just incorporated (do not over beat). Pour batter into cake pans and bake for 30 minutes or until done. (This cake took longer than 30 minutes, it might have something to do with the humidity or being close to sea level, but it took about 40 minutes to bake.) Cool on Wire racks.

Mix together dry ingredients

Shift dry ingredients

Mix mayo, water, vanilla

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet

put batter in greased & floured pans

bake until beautifully done

put on wire racks until cool

 The filling is chocolate mousse. I have to tell you that my mousse didn't set up quite right, because the whipped cream didn't whip as tightly as I needed it, but I put it in between the cake layers any way. It oozed out a bit, so when I put the frosting on, it mixed with it to give it a marbled effect. Not planned, but welcomed, because it tasted so good.

Chocolate Mousse

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

3 eggs, separated

¼ cup sugar

½ cup heavy cream

½ teaspoon vanilla extract (I use brandy or cognac)

1. Place a double boiler or small saucepan over low heat, and melt butter and chocolate together. Just before chocolate finishes melting, remove pan from stove and beat chocolate with a wooden spoon until smooth.

2. Transfer chocolate mixture to a bowl and beat in egg yolks with a whisk. Place bowl in refrigerator.

3.  Beat egg whites with half the sugar until they hold stiff peaks but are not dry. Set aside. Beat cream with the remaining sugar and vanilla until it holds peaks.

4. Stir a couple of spoonfuls of egg whites into chocolate mixture to lighten it a bit, then fold in remaining egg whites thoroughly but gently. Fold in cream and refrigerate until chilled. If you are in a hurry divide mousse in individual dishes.. It will chill much faster.

Serve with in a day or two of making it.

Yield: 4 servings.

The frosting was a bit more free wheeling.

1 cup organic shredded coconut

1 stick unsalted butter

1 8oz package cream cheese

1 cup or so of powered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

This cake is extremely moist. It was a great birthday cake!!!

Quote of the day: "Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me." Audrey Hepburn

And making your own cake, you get to lick the beaters, oh my!!!

I was able to share this cake with friends, not all at the same time, but that made it kind of fun, too. I took pieces of it to breakfast, to lunch and dinner and afternoon tea.