One Chocolate Cake, Don’t Hold the Mayo

For those of us who fancy ourselves “real cooks,” who pride ourselves on making everything from scratch, it is an interesting exercise to go and study our cupboards. My pantry shelves contain everything from staples such as salt and oil to canned sardines, pumpkin and peanut butter. And, of course, there’s my all-time favorite, mayonnaise.

Over the years I’ve made mayonnaise in cooking classes many times, but I’ve never wavered from my preference for commercially made Best Foods mayonnaise. According to John Mariani in “The Dictionary of American Food & Drink” (Lebhar-Friedman Books, $29.95), the first important examples of commercial mayonnaise were made in 1912 by Richard Hellmann at his New York delicatessen and by Best Foods in California. The two merged under the Best Foods name and now Hellmann’s sells east of the Rocky Mountains, while here in the West it is Best Foods.

In fact, this Mayonnaise Chocolate Cake, which had a wild surge in popularity during the 1950s, was developed by the wife of a distributor for Hellmann’s. The use of mayonnaise, which seems puzzling in a cake, does two things: It gives the cake a luscious richness, and it keeps it moist and fresh tasting for much longer than a conventional chocolate cake.

Mayonnaise Chocolate Cake

Active Work Time: 10 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 45 minutes

This is also good frosted with chocolate or vanilla frosting. *

2 cups cake flour

1 cup sugar

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup cold brewed coffee

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Powdered sugar, for dusting

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour 2 (8-inch) round cake pans.

Stir together the cake flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda, and sift the mixture onto a piece of wax paper.

In a bowl beat together the mayonnaise, coffee and vanilla until thoroughly blended. Add the combined dry ingredients and beat until the batter is perfectly smooth. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven and let cool in the pans for 5 minutes before turning them out onto racks to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar.

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12 servings. Each serving: 231 calories; 386 mg sodium; 5 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 41 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 1.28 grams fiber.

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Xochi placemat from Room With A View, Santa Monica.