Italian Chocolate Cake

This is the easiest, most deliciously dense moist chocolate cake you'll ever make! I grew up watching cooking shows on PBS and one of my favorites was Mary Ann Esposito who was from N.H. but specialized in Italian cooking from the region of Umbria. This recipe is hers and I pay homage to Mary Ann by listing this recipe here. You can make this as a stacked cake with 9" pans, a bundt cake pan, or cupcakes, depending on your fancy. I find the bundt is very easy to do, and in which case, I half the frosting recipe, and the same with the cupcakes. If you are stacking two cakes with frosting in the middle, you'll want to make the full frosting recipe. And for my vegan friends, since this cake recipe is vegan friendly, you can skip the frosting all together and simply sprinkle with cinnamon infused confectionery sugar, thereby cutting a lot of calories too! It's delicious either way!

Cake Batter
Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
6 Tbsp. cocoa (use the good stuff like Ghiradelli or Perugina)
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 cups cold water


Frosting
Ingredients:
Two 8-ounce packages lite cream cheese at room temperature
3 1/2 to 4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9-inch cooking pans and set aside. In a mixer blend flour, sugar, cocoa, soda & salt. With mixer on low speed, add the wet ingredients to the dry mix until everything is smooth. Pour batter into pans and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. DO NOT OVERCOOK, but the cake should be firm to the touch. I find that the bundt cake version takes a little longer than the 9" cake pans. Place cake pans on cooling rack for 15-20 minutes, then remove from cake pans and allow to cool completely. Make the frosting while they are cooling by mixing the room temperature cream cheese in a mixer until smooth, add enough sugar to make the frosting smooth, and finally stir in the cinnamon oil. I recommend keeping the cake in the fridge once you've cut into it as it keeps very well and is oh so delicious eaten cold! Brava Cuoca Mary Ann!