This is the last cake post for a while, I promise! But this is BIG!
First, the story behind so-called Noodle Cake for those unfamiliar with Lundberg family traditions: For years, My mom made a fantastic, moist, fluffy chocolate cake. It was so awesome that we never even bothered to ice it, something I credit for my ambivalence about frosting in general. It was a one-bowl cake and was so easy to make, it was considered fool-proof.
One time, when we were having it for a Family Home Evening treat, my sister asked for a REALLY big slice. My mom humored her by making a long, thin slice down the length of the 9x13 pan. My sister said it looked like a noodle cake, and the name stuck.
We probably made Noodle Cake at least once a week and took it to countless potlucks. When I was fourteen or so, I had to take a treat to a Young Women's meeting at church so, of course, I took a noodle cake. Everyone loved it and Kathy Koch, an expert baker and the source of the only sugar cookie recipe I will ever use, begged for the recipe. A day or two later, we made a noodle cake and...it was a total flop. It rose in the oven and then collapsed the moment it came out of the oven into a pile of goo. In spite of our best efforts and many attempts, the recipe never worked again. I even gave it a try when I was in college, thinking that the different oven might make a difference. It didn't, and over time we lost the cookbook that held the recipe we used to have committed to memory.
My mom found a new chocolate cake recipe and we even called it Noodle Cake, but it wasn't the same. It was fine, maybe even good. But it didn't have the wow factor that kept us from grabbing a cake mix instead. After my success with the yellow cake the other day, I decided to see if I could bring back the noodle cake magic. I looked at the Smitten Kitchen favorite, but it called for "3 oz fine quality chocolate." Not only did that seem a bit snooty to me, but we didn't have so much as a chocolate chip in the house. So I turned to my other go-to recipe sight, MelsKitchenCafe, where she has a section titled "best recipe" and contains what she considers the best version of basic recipes - the best whole wheat bread, the best chicken noodle soup and...the best chocolate cake. I looked at the recipe and noted the similarities to original noodle cake, both in the ingredient list and her description of the final cake. I gave it a whirl.
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2010/09/the-best-chocolate-cake.html
Make. This. Cake. THIS is Noodle Cake and I can't tell you how happy I am to see it again. Word of warning: this makes a huge batch. I filled two 9-inch pans, one 8x8 pan, twelve cupcakes and still had a bit of batter left for tasting. I think next time I would make a 9x13 and a bunch of cupcakes. It has odd measurements, making me think that it was scaled down from a massive recipe used in a bakery or something. Anyway, none of that matters. What matters is that this is truly the best chocolate cake and it will ruin you for cake mixes for life. That's not a bad thing.
