Happy Birthday Cake for Midlife Mama!

(recipe slightly edited, see note below post)
This cake was baked to wish a Happy 45th Birthday to Libby (Midlife Mama), a fellow blogging mother, academic, and children's literature lover (did I forget to mention food lover?). Unfortunately I can only offer it to you virtually, but the recipe follows below.

It doesn’t look perfect, not even that pretty, but I just made it myself
- and it is still warm.

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Brazilian Chocolate Cake

A “healthier” chocolate cake, but still yummy!

Ingredients:

4 eggs, whole
2 cups of sugar (use less sugar if using Nesquik - like 1 1/2 cups or less)
1 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of water – boiling
2 cups flour
1 ½ cup cocoa (Nesquik) - - or unsweetened cocoa (1 cup only)
1 pinch of salt
1 tbs baking powder

Utensils: You will need two bowls, one with a spout if possible, a mixing spoon and a fine sieve, this batter is good for a 13X9 in. (22X33 cm. or 20X30) rectangular baking pan or pyrex or a large bundt pan.

In a large bowl (with a spout) mix the whole eggs, sugar and vegetable oil. Pour the boiling water and mix, adding to it all the flour and the cocoa and mixing it quickly (so the flour doesn’t “cook”). The batter will be very lumpy, but when I was a young girl I devised a way to make the it smooth (the original recipe tells you to use your hands to help eliminate the lumps, but that would never work for me) – simply pass the whole batter through a sieve into another clean bowl!

Then, add the pinch of salt and the baking powder (it’s very tricky to mix the baking powder without big lumps again – just spread the powder slowly over the batter with a spoon and mix slowly, or whatever way it works for you). Do not use an electric mixer for this cake. Pour in the prepared pan of your choice (oiled and dusted with cocoa),

and bake in a 350 F (under 200 C) oven until it’s baked (use the old trick of the toothpick – stick it in the center and when it comes out clean, the cake’s done :)

Easy Chocolate Frosting

1 ½ -2 cups cocoa (Nesquik)

2 tbs milk

2 tbs butter

Right after the cake is done, put all ingredients in a glass or plastic bowl and warm for 30-40 seconds in the microwave to heat the milk/melt the butter and then mix it with a spoon until it’s smooth. Just pour over/ spread on the cake while it’s still warm.

Enjoy!

Edited to add: this cake is good even without frosting, because the top crust is hard and crunchy. You can definitely use unsweetened cocoa as well, and I just realized that if you use sweetened cocoa, the ideal thing would be to use less sugar. I edited the recipe above as well.

PS This cake is also dedicated to Alice (from Jabberlingual), who has lately been frustrated in her chocolate cake making :)