Bite in the Attic: Sandy Dedrick's Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
What are the holidays without sweets?? Here's a sweet treat from the Free Design's Sandy Dedrick, which originally appeared in the Light in the Attic Zine (#11) published in 2019 with words (and cake recipe proof of concept) by Jackie Allen...
Bite in the Attic with Sandy Dedrick of the Free Design
We baked Sandy's classic recipe and the proof is in the pudding... er... batter. At any rate, not only are kites fun but cakes are, too!
Here's a note from Sandy:
“We were singing on Arthur Godfrey’s radio show for two weeks. Arthur was pitching Sara Lee Chocolate Cake in an ad and asked if anyone in the studio could make a better one. I said I could, so he asked me to bring one in the next day, which I did. I don’t think he expected this, but he sent someone out to pick up a Sara Lee cake and then passed both cakes around the band, and they voted my cake the best! Arthur, always quick on the draw, said to the radio audience, ‘Well folks, if you can’t get Sandy’s cake, get Sara Lee’s!’”
Without further ado, Sandy’s better-than-Sara Lee Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake...
INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (we used Hershey’s unsweetened)
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup mayonnaise
1 1/3 cups water
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.
Combine dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on high, beat together eggs, sugar, and vanilla for 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Alternately beat in the dry ingredients and the water, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
Pour into cake pans and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Voila! Let it cool, ice it, and eat it!
We made a simple chocolate buttercream with the Hershey’s cocoa powder and added some psychedelic decorations out of marzipan dyed with food coloring gel.
This cake was really straight forward and easy to make, and it turned out delicious! The crumb was moist and slightly fudgey. By strange coincidence, chocolate mayonnaise cake already happens to be the birthday cake of choice in the household of LITA-founder Matt Sullivan, but it was new to the rest of us. The Sullivan household also highly recommends making cake shakes with the leftover cake. Perhaps that will be a later installment of Bite in the Attic.
After baking this beauty, we were left wondering how the cake would differ if we’d used melted down bar chocolate as opposed to powdered, so we’re hoping to make it that way too and do a little comparison. While the cake’s texture was incredible, we thought the flavor could’ve been a little bit richer. Maybe next time we’ll add a little coffee or espresso to the cake batter as well and report back...
CAKE IMAGE COURTESY OF JACKIE ALLEN
