Promise kept

I promised, I promised. Last week I mentioned that I was trying a simple one-bowl chocolate cake recipe that Smitten Kitchen posted several months ago. Another winner! Smitten did it again--a nice, moist, uncomplicated cake that's just perfect in its chocolate simplicity. It was devoured before I got a chance to photograph it so I'm using Smitten's photo and giving her every bit of credit. Go to her site!

Here's the version I made, with slight adaptations.

Simple Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen at http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/08/everyday-chocolate-cake/ who got it from Magnolia Bakery At Home.

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1½ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup cocoa powder (I used Scharffen-Berger cocoa)

½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
Confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Butter and lightly flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan, or spray it with a butter-flour spray. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat well, then the buttermilk and vanilla. Don’t worry if the batter looks a little uneven. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together right into your wet ingredients. Stir together with a spoon until well-blended but do not overmix. Scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack for about 10 to 15 minutes, at which point you can cool it the rest of the way out of the pan. When cool, dust with confectioner’s sugar.