Czarna Babka - Ambasador

("Black Cake - Ambassador" Chocolate Cake)

From My Grandmother's Kitchen....

Ingredients

• breadcrumbs and a pat of butter for the "crust"
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 sticks butter
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 4 whole eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 1 grated lemon zest
• 1 cup walnuts (optional)

Steps

1. Mix the butter, sugar and water together.  Cook on a low heat until the sugar is in a liquid state.  Stir in the cocoa.
2. Put aside a cup of this mixture for later.
3. Let cool until the chocolate mixture is at approximately room temperature.
4. While that is cooling, mix the flour, baking powder, and lemon peel together.
5. Scramble the eggs.
6. Once the mixture from Step 3 is cool, add eggs to the mixture, stirring them in slowly.
7. Slowly add the flour mixture into the butter/cocoa mixture, stirring in one direction only (I'm not sure if this is a superstition or a real Cooking Tip.  Why break something when it ain't broke?).
8. Put the resulting mixture into a baking pan (I prefer bunt cake pans) that has been buttered and breaded.
9. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350-375 degrees.  Once it's done, remove it from the oven and let cool.
10. Take the liqueur from Step 2 and spoon it over the cake.  This liqueur will harden to make a thin shell around the cake.
11. Enjoy!

All photos and text copyright Ryszard Kilarski, unless otherwise noted. Clip art, drawings, paintings are either free domain or copyrighted by the artists.