Buttermilk Cocoa Cake
Adapted from Laurie Colwin’s More Home Cooking.
Prep time: about ten minutes to assemble, plus 30-40 minutes baking time
1 3/4 cups/220 grams AP flour
3/4 cup/76 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup/215 grams sugar
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup/240 ml buttermilk OR 250 grams plain yogurt
1/2 cup/90 ml canola oil or melted sweet butter
2 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract
Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
Butter and flour a 9 inch/22cm baking pan or glass Pyrex pie pan. Cocoa powder can replace the flour.
If your cocoa powder is lumpy, sift it or pass it through a fine strainer.
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Initially the batter will be heavy and hard to mix. Keep stirring: it will cohere and clear the sides of the bowl.
Pour the batter into the cake pan.
Bake cake 30-40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool buttermilk cocoa cake on a rack. If you baked it in a glass pan, there is no need to turn it out.
Buttermilk cocoa cake keeps, covered at room temperature up to five days. After that, refrigerate it three more days. Freeze cake, well-wrapped, up to three months.
Notes:
Full-fat plain yogurt may be used instead of buttermilk.
I used almond extract instead of vanilla, baking with a scant two teaspoons.