Grammy Carter’s Yummiest Ever Chocolate Cake

I follow after my dad in the sweet tooth department. Mom still jokes about his first words when he came home from work. “What’s for dessert?”

One of our family’s favorites was her Blind Date Cake. Just yum.

When I wrote Love, Mary Elisabeth it seemed only natural to include it. Mary Elisabeth dubbed it “Grammy Carter’s Yummiest Ever Chocolate Cake.” I have provided the recipe here so you can enjoy it, too.

I thought it would be fun to write up the recipe using terminology fitting the time period and wood cook range use. For oven temperatures, I checked several sources online. They didn’t all agree but were close. In my recipe I wrote to bake in a warm oven (325 degrees). It was also called a slow oven at that temperature.

Here is a basic conversion chart:

• Very slow/warm oven: 250-275 F
• Slow/warm oven: 300-325 F
• Moderate oven: 350-375 F
• Hot oven: 400-425 F
• Very hot oven: 450-475 F
• Extremely hot oven: 500-525 F

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Grammy Carter’s Best Ever Chocolate Cake (Blind Date Cake)

Ingredients

Date Mixture:

• 1 cup dates chopped fine
• 1 1/4 cup water boiling
• 1 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (shortening)
• 1/2 to 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3 teaspoons cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Toppings:

• 1/2 cup sugar optional
• 1 to 1 ½ cups chopped Hershey Kisses (1 package chocolate chips)
• 1/2 cup nuts chopped (optional)

Instructions

Prepare Dates

1. Add 1 1/4 cup boiling water to dates to soften.

2. Mash & let cool.

3. Add 1 teaspoon baking soda to dates. Set aside.

Prepare Cake

1. Cream shortening, sugar, beaten eggs, and vanilla extract.

2. Add combined dry ingredients:
3. Be sure soda has been added to dates.
4. Add date mixture.
5. Mix well.
6. Pour into a large (9X13) well-greased cake pan.

7. Sprinkle sugar, Hershey Kisses, and chopped nuts (optional) on top.

8. Bake in warm oven (325 degrees) for 35–40 minutes.

Recipe Notes

From the author: I have used parenthesis to indicate modern terms.

Photographs by Marlys Endo