The most famous cake in my family: Brown Beauty Cake

As you probably know by now, I am a cake aficionado. Especially when it comes to chocolate cake. I like other flavors of cake, but chocolate is by far the best. In my family, there are several different chocolate cakes that we make, and each one kind of means something different. This particular cake is the cake that I grew up with as birthday cake or celebratory cake - if my mom didn't buy a Publix sheet cake (and those really are awesome), this was what we had for birthday cake. A Brown Beauty Cake.

I was shocked when I Googled the recipe, to see if it was out there in cyberspace already, and I found that it wasn't posted anywhere. Nope. There's a lot of recipes for Brown Beauty Icing, which comes from Betty Crocker, and is quite good, but not a single one for cake, so I'm excited to share this recipe with you all. It's been handed down in my family from my grandmother to my mom to me, though we're not too sure of its origins. But who cares - it's so yummy!!

It's a very dense, moist type of chocolate cake, topped with a sweet vanilla frosting. It's like having a little party in your mouth. To top it all off, it's super easy to make. Bake this cake tonight. Trust me. You won't be sorry. (The picture does NOT do it justice!)


Brown Beauty Cake
Printer-friendly recipe

1/2 cup boiling water
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup soft butter
1/4 milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1. Pour water over chopped up chocolate and stir until melted. Cool mixture slightly. Heat oven to 350 and grease a 9x9 square baking pan.
2. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add cooled chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Put in butter, mix. Add egg and mix well, and finally add milk and vanilla. Beat for one minute.
3. Bake cake for 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester is inserted and a dense crumb or two sticks.

Frosting
1 stick butter
Vanilla
Powdered sugar
1/2 and 1/2

Mix soft butter with powdered sugar, to taste (I usually use about 2-3 cups). Add approximately 1-2 tsp of vanilla, 1 tbsp 1/2 and 1/2, and a shake of salt. Frost cake after it has fully cooled.