chocolate snack cake

Lisa Lotts’s selected chocolate snack cake is a small, single-layer cake with a thin maple-caramel glaze. She presents it as a recipe from her husband’s grandmother Marie, pairing a moist chocolate crumb with a sweet maple finish.

The selected shortening and granulated sugar are creamed until fluffy. Buttermilk is whisked with baking soda and beaten into the mixture before two lightly beaten eggs are added.

All-purpose flour, natural cocoa and iodized salt are beaten in, followed by vanilla and strong hot coffee. The batter bakes in a square glass dish prepared with vegetable spray and a parchment-lined bottom.

While the cake rests after baking, a separate portion of shortening boils with brown sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla, salt and pure maple syrup. Maple extract is optional; icing sugar is beaten into the mixture off the heat until smooth.

The hot glaze is poured over the cake and spread evenly before being left to set for slicing. The thin maple coating contrasts with the chocolate-and-coffee crumb, giving this small cake its distinctive finish.