My recipe for a chocolate snowball of happiness. Thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this video! Go to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/ragusea and add code “RAGUSEA" at checkout to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
For the cake:
1 cup milk
1.5 cups cocoa powder
1 chocolate bar (whatever kind you like)
1.5 cups sugar + a dab of molasses (or the same quantity of brown sugar)
1 cup vegetable oil
8 oz sour cream
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the frosting:
4 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Squeeze of corn syrup (if you have it)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the cake batter, bring the milk to a boil in a large saucepan. Take it off the heat, whisk in the cocoa powder, and allow the pan to cool a bit. While you're waiting, cut up the chocolate bar into small pieces.
Into the pan, put the sugar and molasses (or brown sugar), oil, sour cream and vanilla. Then crack in the eggs, and whisk to combine. Don't worry if it's not completely smooth. Whisk in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Pour the batter into two greased 9 or 10-inch cake pans, ideally lined with parchment rounds, and bake at 350 F until a toothpick comes out clean or the internal temperature reads 205-210 F. That takes me about 40 minutes. Let them cool thoroughly before taking them out of their pans.
For the frosting, separate out four egg whites. Put in the corn starch and cream of tartar, and beat until you get soft peaks. In a small sauce pan, mix the water, sugar and corn syrup together and bring to a boil on high heat. When the syrup reaches 240-245 F, drizzle it into the egg whites while beating. Continue to beat until the meringue doesn't seem to be taking on any more volume, 3-4 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.
Let the meringue cool a few minutes (but no more) before frosting the cake. Top with sprinkles, if you're into that.
MY COOKING PHILOSOPHY: I don't like weighing or measuring things if I don't have to, and I don't like to be constantly checking a recipe as I cook. I don't care that volume is a bad way of measuring things - it's usually easier. I like for a recipe to get me in the ballpark, and then I like to eyeball and improvise the rest. If you're like me, my goal with these videos is to give you a sense of how the food should look and feel as you're cooking it, rather than give you a refined formula to reproduce.