Chocolate Ripple Cake's a Popular Family Treat (With Recipe)

Two Hartland High School seniors are seen as a cooking team at a Howell culinary arts program and it's not a surprise.

Seventeen-year-olds Brittany Anderson of Linden — who recently brought in a cake recipe that we're featuring — and Sara Luberto of Brighton have a lot in common. Both love to cook and come from large families. (Luberto is one of 11 children, including her stepbrothers and stepsisters, while Anderson is one of 10).

Luberto, in fact, enjoys cooking so much that she plans to make a career of it. She will start studying culinary arts at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island in the fall and admits she’s “a little nervous” about going away to school. “I’m pretty close to my family.”

Both girls are enjoying pairing up in class to make things and obtain practical experience in the field as they take part in Howell High School’s culinary arts program, a program that was established in 1981.

They also participated in a mentoring program last year, which Luberto continued in this school year and have past experience with athletics. Luberto swam competitively for 11 years, until her sophomore year while Anderson ran track in seventh, eighth and ninth grade. They even work at the same place: The Gap at Tanger Outlets in Howell.

Anderson is still deciding between Schoolcraft College’s culinary arts program or physical therapy or occupational therapy coursework at Baker College in Flint.

“Culinary is something I’ve been interested in all my life. I love to cook,” Anderson said.

Taking the culinary course is “a good opportunity to figure out if this is really the field I want to go into,” she adds. “I’m still not 100 percent sure.”

According to their instructor, Vivian Lee, the girls are just about inseparable in class.

The story behind the recipe

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake, which is quite similar to Sanders’ famous “Bumpy Cake,” was on the recent menu at The Highlander Restaurant, the student restaurant operated from 7:45-9:15 a.m. at Howell High School and during all lunches Thursdays and Fridays, serving up the fare culinary arts students make.

The particular recipe is one that Anderson provided to the class.

“We make it all the time for birthday parties or family parties,” she said.

First, Anderson explained, they had a small group make the recipe together as a test batch, giving her the chance to demonstrate how to make the cake; the second time around, each person took on a one part of the recipe.

Lee, who’s in her first year of teaching at Howell and has worked in the industry for eight years, said she thinks this one hits the spot; the chocolate cake base isn’t too sweet, making for a good contrast to the sweeter buttercream  topped with chocolate frosting.

“It tasted really good. I liked it.”

She was happy Anderson provided it to the rest of her class for use.

“If she has a tried and true recipe, I support using that. Something that’s very important here is that it’s not only a learning atmosphere, but a sharing atmosphere.”

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

Cake:

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 ¾ cups flour

¾ cup cocoa

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

(Preheat oven to 350 degrees first).

1. Combine dry ingredients.
2. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.
3. Beat two minutes at medium speed.
4. Stir in hot water (batter will be thin).
5. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30-35 minutes.
6. Cool 10 minutes.

Buttercream

Ingredients:

½ cup shortening

½ cup margarine

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons flour

2/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dash salt

Instructions:

1. Beat first four ingredients for a long time
2. Gradually add in milk, vanilla and salt; beat until smooth and fluffy; note that “it takes quite a while,” according to Anderson
3. Put all the butter cream over cake as a second layer; it should be fairly thick.

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

⅓ cup milk

¼ cup margarine

1 tablespoon vanilla

Dash salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Bring milk, margarine, vanilla and salt to a boil.
2. Remove from heat, add chocolate chips, stirring until melted
3. Add powdered sugar to bring to desirable consistency (it will still be somewhat thin and able to be poured)
4. Pour over buttercream layer and let cool until it hardens.

Editor's note: This story was updated May 6 to add the amount of flour necessary for the recipe, which had been inadvertently left out. We apologize for the error.