Seven years! Seven years ago, I started writing the Twice as Tasty blog. What started as a personal project led to workshops and house concerts, a cookbook and a column, and the launchpad for so much of the other food writing I do today. I’m especially appreciative of those of you who have been following my journey from the beginning, and I’m thrilled that so many more of you have joined in over the years.

To celebrate, I share my favorite chocolate cake recipe this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. When I say “my favorite,” really I mean that unless I have a surplus of zucchini, this is the only chocolate cake I make. My mom discovered the original recipe when I was still a teenager. I’ve made a few tweaks but I’ve never needed another technique because this one is that good.

Learn more about my favorite chocolate cake and get the complete recipe for Chocolate Pudding Cake, Snack or Stacked, in my column.

Make it, share it.
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Twice as Tasty

As an everyday cake at home, for a picnic, or in lunchboxes, I simply dust the surface with powdered sugar—or leave it unadorned. When I want to layer the cake for a fancy presentation, these are my favorite decorative touches:

• Filling: Tart Berry Jam and other flavors that pair well with chocolate become a ready-to-use filling when you have a home-canned stash.
• Glaze: Chocolate Ganache is simple to make and spreads smoothly over the cake’s surface.
• Topping: Buttercream can work as a filling, frosting, or topping, but occasional bakers will find decorations the easiest to create. For the vanilla bean buttercream in the photo, make a half-batch of Basil Buttercream. Skip the basil and scrape in the seeds from half of a vanilla bean, along with 1 teaspoon of Homemade Vanilla Extract, when you add the salt.

You can find more jams and other filling ideas in the recipe index.

When you’re making a layered cake, a few of these tips and tricks may come in handy:

• To divide batter equally into layers, just weigh it. Write down the empty weight of the bowl you’ll be using for the final mix. Reweigh the filled bowl, subtract the empty bowl weight, and divide by 2. Now you know how much to pour into each prepared cake pan.
• Spread filling just shy of the perimeter of the bottom cake layer, making it thick enough that it won’t ooze over the edge. Top with the second cake layer and press gently until level. If filling does escape, remove it using a dry spatula.
• Let the ganache sit until slightly hardened before adding butttercream topping. I rarely use a piping bag, so I practice by piping the buttercream onto a piece of waxed paper. You can even form all of your decorations on waxed paper and then transfer them to the top of the cake.

For a different buttercream flavor, consider the lilac-infused sugar in this blog post.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.