Jackson Jambalaya

Do you ever think of something and suddenly break out in a big smile? This thought works for me.

I was a kid during the ancient BW (Before Walmart) period of history we knew as the early 50s. I guess there were places in the 1950s where one could purchase a nice birthday cake back then.

Maybe you could find one in Jitney Jungle at Westland Plaza, or from Long's Bakery, which they eventually expanded from their original location in Yazoo City to Westland Plaza and opened a bakery all the way around the strip from Jitney, to just across from where Shoney's would eventually build their Big Boy Heaven and give Jackson it's early mid to late 1960's version of Heavy Chevy Cruising for women.

If this sounds misogynist, my memory is that the girls were parked there in the car hop slots, waiting on the guys who were cruising by, attempting to lay rubber and then get stopped before rear-ending the car 10 feet in front of them. For what it's worth, a red SS 396 Chevelle would get you considerably closer to success.

Going back ten or twelve years from the days of Heavy Chevies and girls who rolled their hair in orange juice cans to get those hairdo's that drove the boys wild, it didn't matter all that much where you could go to get a birthday cake in the 50's, because mom always made them at home for us. I don't know if boxed cake mixes were as foolproof back then, because mom made our birthday cakes from scratch and the final result was so good we didn't care where they came from or how they got onto the kitchen counter during an afternoon when we were at school, or outside running wild before Dad got home at 5:00 and our birthday dinner was placed on the table. 

What was my favorite birthday feast? Spaghetti and chocolate cake. Mom's spaghetti recipe was "really special" with a tomato sauce made with canned tomatoes and the last inch or two of Delmonte Ketchup from a nearly empty ketchup bottle. Maybe I will do that recipe for you guys one day, or maybe not. It was my favorite Italian dish before my wife made spaghetti for me after we were married. Sorry Mom, your ketchup sauce came nowhere close to what the wife made.

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Sorry, this post is not about spaghetti sauce or Chevelles from the greatest decades (57-??) of GM automobile design. It concerns the very best chocolate frosted yellow cake anyone would ever want for their birthday. It may not be Mom's recipe, but I am unable to tell any difference, and the ingredients were almost always in the kitchen cabinet when we lived on Faircourt Street in West Jackson.

Here is how I do it. Makes me smile just to think about how many of these mom made for us kids when we lived there in the BC (Before Clinton) days.

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Icing

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of milk
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Frosting:

1/2 cup of softened butter
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
4 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
1/4 – 1/2 cup milk, added 1 Tablespoon at a time until desired texture is obtained

Directions:

For the Cake:

Line two 9″ round cake pans with parchment paper and brush with melted butter. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and lightly dust the pans with a little four.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl, while mixing until you have a smooth batter. Then add the vanilla and mix to incorporate.

Divide the batter equally between the two prepared pans.

Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then invert them onto cooling racks to cool completely.

For the Chocolate Frosting:

In a bowl, combine all the frosting ingredients and beat until you have a smooth mixture. Add milk, one Tablespoon at a time to achieve a spreadable consistency.

I like to place strips of parchment paper under the edges on the bottom layer of cake to make the finished cake neater. I frost my cake on the cake plate I will serve from and then store leftover cake under a cake dome. Place a large dollop of frosting on top of the bottom layer and spread to make a smooth 1/4 to 1/2 inch layer of frosting between the layers/

Position the top layer and make certain the layers match up neatly.

Coat sides and top with a crumb coating of frosting and allow to sit for 30 minutes.

Add the rest of the frosting as neatly as you like and then pull away parchment paper from beneath the bottom layer

Enjoy your delicious homemade chocolate cake!

Store the cake, covered for the day or two that it will last. If sneaking another slice in the middle of the night, be sure to rinse off the plate so no one will know that evil deeds you habe been up to while the world was sleeping.

Thanks for looking at my post.
God Bless you.