All American Chocolate Cake with Divinity Frosting and Milk Chocolate Paint

Flo Braker is one talented lady to come up with this incredible cake.  The cake crumb is the perfect combination of light and moist.  The divinity frosting a total surprise.  And painting with milk chocolate?  Well, that was just plain fun! Joining the ABC bakers has expanded my horizon.

My quality control inspector made a surprise visit, just in time to commandeer the spatula.  Both girls pleaded  for mercy for the chocolate cake.

"Pleeeeease don't put that meringue stuff on it."

I compromised and frosted half with frozen canned vanilla frosting left over from a Betty Crocker's Rainbow  Chip Cake. Of course it simply had to have a dose of sprinkles. And let me say, this chocolate cake is so yummy it made the canned frosting taste good.

I was dreading the divinity frosting.  It sounded too meringue-y for my taste and cooked sugar syrups fill me with apprehension.  I'm learning not to give them any special attention and they seem to behave better.  Flo has a neat trick of keeping a pastry brush and cold water close by to remove any crystals forming inside the pan.  It worked!

The frosting floored me.  Pouring the hot syrup into the beaten egg white and watching the Kitchen Aid turn them into puffy marshmallow bliss caught me off guard.  The fact that it tasted good was an even bigger surprise.

Since it was only half a cake, I opted to frost the top, leaving the sides exposed, making for a greater cake to frosting ratio.  It was a hot day and cranking up the air conditioning didn't help it set enough.  I crossed my fingers and put it in the freezer while melting the chocolate and butter for the "paint".    After painting on the chocolate it had another quick turn in the freezer to set the chocolate wash.

And then we couldn't wait any longer!  Rave reviews!  For a cake that seemed very complicated it turned out to be easy.  Most of all, it's simply delicious.