Back when I worked on campus in the Office of Agricultural Communications, several of us would get together to celebrate one another’s birthdays when they rolled around.
We kept it simple: the birthday girl got a card that everyone signed, a lunch out (birthday girl’s choice, which was almost always Mexican food), and a candle-topped cake.
At first, we changed up the cakes we made. One birthday we might have cheesecake; another might bring lemon icebox pie to the table. Once we even had some sort of gooey chocolate mixture in a slow cooker.
Eventually, though, we codified even the cake. A new friend moved into the department and made a lovely, dense chocolate cake for us. We all fell in love immediately, and she emailed us the recipe. From then on, we began baking this one cake over and over every time someone had a birthday.
It’s just a doctored cake mix baked in a bundt pan, but this cake was so iconic that we referred to it as The Cake, emphasis on the word “the.”
As in, “Keryn’s birthday is tomorrow. I’ll make The Cake.”
There was no need for anyone to clarify which cake they meant; it was always this one.
Eventually, though, I decided to return to the classroom. I missed teaching. I missed kids.
Every change has a tradeoff, and for me one of the things I lost when I left AgComm was my closeness with those wise and witty women I’d grown to love so much.
Classroom teachers – contrary to popular belief – are extraordinarily busy people who don’t have a lot of free time. That’s why I don’t really celebrate birthdays with my teaching colleagues with anything beyond a hug and well wishes.
Somehow, this cake dropped completely from my memory. I haven’t made it or thought about it for years.
But Julia, who seems to have inherited my love for community cookbooks, recently found a recipe in a 90s church cookbook that she just had to try.
As it turns out, “Pat’s Cake” is a variation on the recipe we made and loved for all those years. The first bite took me right back to all those birthdays I celebrated with my friends.
Happy birthday, ladies… this one is for all the ones I’ve missed.
CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE RECIPE
Ingredients
1 box butter yellow cake mix (moist deluxe recommended)
1 large (5.9 ounce) box instant chocolate pudding mix
1 (6-ounce) package milk chocolate chips
1 cup oil
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup water
1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream
Directions
■ Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease bundt pan well; I use a baking spray that contains flour for this. In a mixing bowl, mix together dry ingredients (cake mix and pudding mix). Add chocolate chips to dry ingredients and toss to coat the chips; this coating will help them stay suspended in the batter rather than sinking to the bottom while the cake cooks.
■ In a separate mixing bowl, mix together wet ingredients (oil, eggs, vanilla, water, sour cream). Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir until completely combined. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top.
■ Bake for 1 hour or until middle is set. Cool on the counter for about 10 minutes. Turn out onto cake plate while cake is still somewhat warm to avoid chips sticking to the pan. If desired, sprinkle top with powdered sugar just before serving (if you do this too far in advance or while the cake is warm, the sugar will melt into the cake and add a very unfortunate white cast to the cake. Ask me how I know.)
Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].
Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.
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