BUTTERMILK COCOA CAKE

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ARIZONA!

I think I am officially done with baking cakes from a box--unless I doctor it up via the Cake Mix Doctor. This cake is so easy--you make it in one bowl. And it is one more recipe to use up leftover buttermilk. (I am turning into my parents--suddenly not wanting to waste anything.)

The cake doesn't need icing--just a sprinkling of powdered sugar (which I dusted over a cooling rack to make a pattern). And it is lovely.

BUTTERMILK COCOA CAKE

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.

Mix together 1 3/4 cups flour, 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

To these ingredients add 1 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola) or melted butter, and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix.

Turn the batter into the pan, bake the cake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean, and let it cool for 5 minutes before turning it out of the pan.

This recipe comes from one of my new favorite books, More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen.