Cake! and conversation

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The French Language School we attend is a ministry of Word of Life. In addition, Word of Life operates a number of Bible Schools, including one here at our campus. Most of the Bible School students are recent high school graduates, not much older than Josh. Last Fall when school began, each language school student was paired up with a volunteer Bible School student. We were assigned to meet for an hour a week and read outloud from the French Bible. Our students were assigned to correct our pronunciation and help us to understand what we were reading. This week was our last week of required meetings with our students because they are leaving this weekend on mission trips, then taking a two week break before beginning the summer camp season. I am blessed with a sweet and patient student who wants to continue meeting with me after she returns from her trip in order to practice conversation in French. I wanted to do something to show my gratitude and affection for her, so I made a chocolate cake for her. She loved it, and it was a great pleasure to be able to do something for her. I receive a lot of requests for my recipe, so I will post it below. I love chocolate, but I never used to enjoy chocolate cake. It just didn't taste chocolatey enough for me. I came across this cake recipe somewhere, I can't remember where, and it trumped every other recipe I had ever tried so this one is now the only chocolate cake recipe I use. The frosting recipe came from a dear friend. It's rich, so it is best eaten with coffee, but that's ok because I also love coffee.

Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp EACH baking powder and baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup boiling water
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup milk
Heat oven to 350*. Grease and flour two round or one 13x9 inch pans. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda, and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water. Pour into pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting - makes 2 cups
1/2 cup real butter, softened
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Cream butter. Add remaining ingredients and beat to spreading consistency. If it is too thick, add a small amount of milk.