Karin's Week Forty Recipe: Skillet Cake

This recipe is actually one from Penzey's Summer 2010 Catalog. My mother and grandmother were visiting for a few days and both recently made this cake. It calls for a 10-inch cast iron skillet, which we have, and when they saw it hanging on the pot rack, wanted to know if I had the ingredients for this cake. I did, and off I was to bake a cake in a cast iron skillet.

Penzey's Skillet Cake

1.5 c flour
3 T cocoa powder
1 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
6 T vegetable oil
1 T vinegar*
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 c cold water

*I discovered that I currently have 6! kinds of vinegar for some reason, and chose the cider variety based on a recommendation of my grandma.

Preheat oven to 350. Sift (or stir) the dry ingredients together into a 10" cast iron skillet. Make 3 wells in the dry ingredients. Pour the oil into the 1st well, the vinegar into the 2nd, and the vanilla into the 3rd well. Pour the cold water over the top. Stir with a fork until well blended. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Don't forget that the handle of the pan will be hot upon removal. Let cool, then frost.

Frosting
1.5 c powdered sugar
2 T cocoa powder
3 T butter, softened
dash salt
2 T brewed coffee, room temp (I used instant espresso, as we had drank up all of the coffee)

Cream everything but the coffee together until well blended. Add the coffee and mix well. Spread over cooled cake. Serve in wedges.

Other than cleaning the skillet, this recipe was extremely easy to make and very tasty. It will be made again, probably not only by me, seeing as it was requested. Beware that the coffee does add a mocha flavor. You could maybe substitute milk for the coffee and do a regular fudge frosting instead.