One memory I have of my grandma is her baking what she called “Mayonnaise Cake”.
Recently when I was having my remembrance birthday for my mom, I couldn’t think of her favorite cake, so I decided to make the cake that was made so often by my grandma.
I do not have my grandma’s original recipe, so again, like in my other family recipes, I will be Whompping-it.
I know her original recipe must have been found on the back of a Hellman’s Jar or in a magazine.
The cake recipe I basically followed is from the Hellmann’s website. The only change I made and love is adding coffee for the water. For the frosting, I used my old standby from *Hershey’s Chocolate Treasury A Special Collection from America’s Chocolate Authority cookbook.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise
1 1/3 cups strong coffee (cooled)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Brew strong coffee, then let it cool.
- Grease and lightly flour two 9-inch round cake pans; set aside.
- Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder in a medium bowl; set aside.
- Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with electric mixer at high speed for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy.
- Beat in Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise at low speed until blended.
- Alternately, beat in the flour mixture with coffee, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
- Pour into pans
- Bake about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of each cake comes out clean.
- Cool 10 minutes on wire racks.
- Use a sharp knife to run around edge just to make sure cake is free of the pan. Remove from pans and cool completely.
- Frost with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
5 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
12 tablespoons softened butter
8-10 tablespoons of milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a small bowl, combine cocoa with confectioners’ sugar.
- Cream butter and 1 cup of cocoa mixture in large mixing bowl.
- Add remaining cocoa mixture, milk and vanilla; beat to spreading consistency
- Optional: For a glossier texture, add 1 tablespoon light corn syrup to the mixture.
Notes:
- If you are using a convection oven like me, then cook at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- You can quickly cool the coffee by putting it in the refrigerator or the freezer.
- I grease and lightly flour the sides of the 9 inch pans cut out circles of parchment paper for the bottom.
- Original Hellmann’s cake recipe called for water. I used coffee as it adds more depth to the chocolate flavor. No it does not taste like coffee. If it did this would not be my son’s favorite as he despises coffee.
- My son and husband said 4 cups of frosting was not enough. Next time, I will make 5 cups of frosting.
This cake was amazing! We all had seconds and we packed my son his doggy bag of cake to take home. Even my picky grandson loved it.
I did my grandma proud. As we called it, “Baking up a storm”.
My grandma was an avid Julia Child watcher, so I will close with:
This is Nancy Dru, bon appetite! 😋
If you would like to read more articles about genealogy, please visit my homepage: https://www.nancydrugenealogy.com/.
*Hershey’s Chocolate Treasury. United States, Golden Press, 1984. Page 68.
