Recipes / Family recipes
Mother's Birthday Favorite · Made Repeatedly · Printable
Salad Dressing Chocolate Cake
The chocolate birthday cake the creator's mother always requested, finished with chocolate fudge frosting.
Ingredients
- 2½ cups flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup cold water
- 1¼ cups sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅓ cup Hershey's cocoa (the creator's chosen brand)
- ¾ cup salad dressing, a mayonnaise-like salad dressing product, not mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
- Chocolate fudge frosting, to finish (separate recipe or quantity not provided on this page)
Directions
- Stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
- Stir in the salad dressing, water and vanilla; mix well.
- Pour into greased and floured 9-inch cake pan(s). The notebook uses the plural “pans” but does not specify how many.
- Bake at 400°F for 35–40 minutes, as written.
- Cool and finish with chocolate fudge frosting as the creator traditionally prepared it for her mother's birthday.
The birthday cake tradition
This was the creator's mother's favorite birthday cake and the only kind she wanted the creator to make for her birthday. It had to be chocolate cake, with chocolate fudge frosting. The creator always used Hershey's cocoa in the cake.
The original notebook calls for “salad dressing,” referring to a mayonnaise-like dressing distinct from both mayonnaise and Miracle Whip in the creator's kitchen. The exact historical brand is not yet identified, so it should not be silently substituted.
The frosting formulation and exact pan count are not recorded on this page. The handwritten cake batter and temperature are preserved without invented changes.