Fran Vedovelli

The last slice

I grew up in a family of eight children and the traditional birthday cake was always a rich chocolatey affair, aptly named the devil’s food cake. I think my mother originally found the recipe on a can of carnation milk, but over the years I recall sour cream was substituted with a better result. Melting chocolate was not used in the recipe,but good quality cocoa powder. The secret appeared to be mixing the batter until the cocoa released a glossy lustre magic. Once cooked and cooled, sliced in half and embellished with cream and berries then iced. Mostly two cakes were used to create a four layered torte. So you can imagine, with that many birthdays it was a pretty regular event, usually held on the nearest Saturday night to the birthday, yet we never tired of it.