Ingredients
2 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup shortening or 2 sticks oleo
2 eggs
2 1/2 cup flour (packed)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup boiling water
2 scant tsp. soda
Directions
Cream sugar and shortening and add eggs, one at a time. Sift flour
three times with cocoa and salt. Add alternatley with buttermilk. Add
soda and water and add to above ingredients. Grease and flour 9 x 13
x 2 inch pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 90 minutes. Test for doneness.
Cool and ice with your favorite icing. (Subliminal message: Your
favorite icing is CHOCOLATE...)
Recipe by: Anne Alford Found in: Talk About Good Shared by: Scott Ward
Servings: 6 servings
Best Ever Chocolate Cake Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cake; Chocolate; Chocolate Cake; Dessert
The History of Recipes
It is possible to track the history of meal recipes way back into history, certainly as far back into recorded history as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and maybe further still. In practice though, mostly, these old recipes were just very simple hieroglyphic instructions for preparing food.
In fact, the oldest recipe discovered, according to academics is a series of tablets in Sumerian describing the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who tried it feel blissful. Later on, in The time of the romans around 25BC a roman called Apicius compiled a collection of scripts detailing recipes enjoyed by wealthy Romans. In his scrolls, Apicius describes how the meals of wealthy Romans were separated into hors d`oeuvres, main meal and afters, a very modern way of dining. Additionally, he tells us how the ancient chefs were skilled in the use of many different aromatic flavors, including some that we all recognise for example basil, mint and parsley. Later, there were a couple of recipe books published in the 14th Century ; a cookery book called `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary named `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are a little misleading though, these books are unconnected to the curry that we all know today, but instead descriptions of the types of meals enjoyed by the rich. Later on in the 1400s, knights returning from the crusades brought back a variety of foods and spices from the holy lands, including rosemary and coriander. The introduction of these new tastes caused an eruption in manuscripts on cooking, the majority of which are kept safe in academic collections. For the decades that followed, the rich and powerful families of Europe competed to serve the most extravagent banquests, and consequentially the best cooks and their recipe collections were at a premium. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the 19th century that formal cookery and cookery books became popular. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, devoted much of their lives to collating, trying out, and writing down the recipes of their peers. By the time we get to the 20th century, cookery publications are highly popular as a result of better eduction, more leisure time and having more disposable income. The arrival of television brings us TV cooks and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. Which pretty much brings us up to date and the invention of computers and the internet, permitting us all to access massive numbers of recipes like those on sites such as this. |
We hope you enjoy this Best Ever Chocolate Cake recipe.
