Easy One-Bowl Chocolate Mocha Cake with Fresh Berries and Ice Cream

Once a month, I take a vintage recipe from an old cookbook and share it with a fantastic and growing group of recipe swappers. We each take time to reinterpret it and post our results the first Sunday of every month.  The Recipe Swap group this time around includes old hands Dennis, Lindsay, Toni, and Mari, to new swappers Mary, Crissy and Lauren, Pola, Jamie, and Claire, to the wonderful bloggers in between, Shari, Joy, and Jennifer.  Our recipe soul sister Sabrina took a break this time, as she just completed a wildly successful bake sale for Japan; we look forward to seeing her next time! Please take a moment to look at everyone's recipes and leave your thoughts for all of us on our pages.

This month's recipe was "Busy Day Wacky Cake", a version of a Depression cake (thanks, Lindsay, for researching), created when recipe workarounds surfaced in absence of essential pantry ingredients like milk and baking powder.  I loved the efficiency of mixing and baking a cake in the same pan, so for my adaptation I hung on to that. Then, in a fitting nod to the soul of this recipe, I couldn't find my baking dish from my move between apartments last week, so out of necessity, this cake was baked in a 9" All-Clad skillet. At that point, I took the "simplicity" message and left the finished cake unglazed, garnishing only with raspberries and vanilla ice cream. This stripped-down dessert pushed individual ingredients like espresso powder and fresh raspberries into the spotlight; a combination that is bright and tangy yet earthy. Lesson learned; simpler is better.

Easy One-Bowl Chocolate Mocha Cake
Burwell General Store

Serves: 8