Stacey's great! She makes us chocolate cake!

I almost forgot about 'Stacey's great! She makes us chocolate cake!' I used to work at Camp Loll, a Boy Scout camp. This may be the very beginning of where my passion for making desserts came from.

Every Thursday, we, the cooks, would make a spaghetti lunch and dinner. Lunch for the Scout Masters, and dinner for the Staff. Chocolate cake went with each spaghetti meal. I always wanted to make the cake, and the girls (xoxo) graciously let me. The assistant Camp Director (CG) would come in and cheer 'Stacey's great! She makes us chocolate cake! each time it was made. Who wouldn't get addicted to that? =) And if he happened to forget, I would remind him. Thanks CG.


So, I'm going to share this recipe for chocolate cake. It is absolutely the best homemade chocolate cake I've ever made. I got this recipe from my most favorite book in the world, entitled '100 BEST DESSERT RECIPES' from Good Housekeeping. I borrowed this book from the Library, a year or 2 ago, and hated to return it. I checked it out several times, until I gave in and bought one for about 3 bux on Amazon. (I love that place) I mean, one of my most favorite things to do is to make a dessert for someone, because #1 I love to see it in their faces 'oh I can't wait to try some of that'. Then #2 of course, is to see a look of satisfaction in their faces, and hear the mmmmmm's. I aim for it to look irresistible, and taste as good as they thought it would.


Easy Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans or 10-inch Bundt pan. Dust pans with cocoa. (I watched a tip on youtube that showed the baker using a cooking spray with flour in it. I used that instead of 'grease' and cocoa. I've never had cakes come out so easily)

2. In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

3. In separate bowl, with wire whisk (not an electric mixer), mix buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla until blended. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

4. Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans or evenly into a Bundt. Bake about 30 min for 9-inch layers, 40 minutes for Bundt, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Run thin knife around edges to loosen layers from sides of pan. Or, if using Bundt pan, run tip of knife around edges to loosen cake from side and center tube of pan. Invert onto racks to cool completely. Frost as desired.

I realize it is no longer ice cream season, but I love this recipe so much, I wanted to share it. I got this recipe from the Studio 5 website. And let me tell you, it is dang delicious. Honestly, I'm not an ice cream lover, but I have gotten rave reviews from many people. What more can I say? Try it. Save money by making it yourself, rather than spending ridiculous amounts of money at fancy schmancy ice cream parlors. =) You won't be sorry.


1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
3 egg yolks
1 Tb. Vanilla
2 cups chilled whipping cream


Mix sugar, salt, milk, and egg yolks in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until bubbles appear around edge of mixture in pan. Cool to room temperature. Stir in vanilla and cream. Pour into ice cream freezer can, put dasher into place. Cover can and adjust crank. Place in freezer tub, fill tub 1/3 full of ice; add remaining ice alternately with layers of rock salt (6 parts ice to 1 part rock salt) Turn crank until it turns with difficulty. Remove lid and dasher, stir mixture and pack down in freezer can, replace lid and repack in ice and salt mixture. Let freeze several hours.
For fruity ice cream decrease vanilla to 1 tsp. mash enough fruit to measure 2 cups. Mix 1/2 cup sugar with fruit. Stir in fruit after adding cream.

Any question? Leave a comment and I'll get back with you asap.

My First Blog

This is my very first blog post! Welcome one and all =). I never thought I'd be a blogger, but all of a sudden, I want to share things with the world. My blog is titled 'my red kitchen' because the things that come from my red kitchen, are (you guessed it) the things I want to share the most. Now, before you go looking for a professional chef with all the answers here, let me just say DON'T. I am a mother who loves spending time in the kitchen and making new dishes (mostly found from library recipe books). I don't know exactly where to begin, so please be patient and soon I hope to have a fun blog up and running.