The events with the chocolate cake with Kahlua began in July 2006. My wife Lorraine and I were conversing with Lil and Ola, and the subject of baking came up. I mentioned a sour cream coffee cake, and Lil mentioned a recipe from Elroy.
It sounded good, so I asked Lil to send it to me. It arrived on the following Tuesday.
The next week, I made the cake—seven ingredients in a Bundt pan. The cake looked good, but the Zerbe Reunion was imminent, so into the refrigerator it went. Our daughter Karly came back early, and when we arrived home a day later, there was about one-fourth missing. Lorraine’s sister, Emma, and Emma’s daughter, Wendy, were with us for several days before returning to Phoenix and so was our daughter Krista, and we all had a piece of cake.
The next day, our daughter Kathy was with us, and we all had a piece of cake. There was about one-fourth left, so I suggested that Kathy take it home for our granddaughters, Andrea and Jill. She said OK.
The next day, I asked Kathy if the girls liked it. There was a pause. She said they didn’t get any. There was none left when she got home, 10 miles away.
Well, I was determined, so I made another and left it on their kitchen table at noon on Friday. On Sunday, I asked Kathy’s husband how the cake was surviving. He said there was none left by noon on Saturday.
In January, Mount Horeb Library was having a competition, “Death by Chocolate.” Lorraine was away, so I thought I would enter. I made two cakes, went to the library, and came home with the second-place prize, beaten only by the grand prize winner.
I later gave the recipe to my bridge partner. She made it, it was a hit, and now it’s known as Grandma Rah Rah’s (her name in the family) cake.
A golf teammate did me some favors, so I made a cake and gave it to his wife one Friday afternoon. On Sunday, he called me and said he had finally had a piece of the cake. Would I make him one next weekend, and each weekend for the next year? Unfortunately, he was an early victim of cancer, so I made a cake and took it to his widow on his birthday as a remembrance. Later, at his wake, a couple in their 30s was in line behind me. I asked how they knew Pete. The guy said he used to go fishing annually in Canada with him. I mentioned taking the cake to Pete’s wife, and he told me that he knew that cake: Pete had made it and he had a piece on three separate occasions.
Chocolate Cake
Makes 1 Bundt cake- 1 box dark chocolate cake mix
- 1 small box instant vanilla pudding
- 16 ounces sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/4 cup Kahlua
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
Mix ingredients together, folding in the chocolate chips last. Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake for 55 minutes. Cool completely before removing from baking pan and sprinkling with powdered sugar.
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