Name: Helen Hudson Whiting’s Celestial Chocolate Cake
Yield: Serves 8 to 10
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 2½ cups confectioners’ sugar; 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into chunks; ½ cup heavy cream or whipping cream; One 16-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips (about 2¾ cups); 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar; 1 cup very cold heavy cream or whipping cream; 4 eggs; ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; 2½ cups sugar; 1 cup (2 sticks) butter; ½ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon baking powder; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 2¾ cups (all-purpose) flour; 1 cup cocoa; 2 cups boiling water

Preparation info

Serves
8 to 10

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Southern Cakes

By Nancie McDermott

Published 2007

About

This recipe comes from a jewel of a book called In Helen’s Kitchen: A Philosophy of Food. Published in memory of Helen Hudson Whiting by her friends at the Regulator Bookstore in Durham, North Carolina, in 2000, the book includes many of her eloquent and witty food columns and recipes, written for area publications through the 1970s and ‘80s. It also contains an abundance of keepsake recipes shared by Helen’s family and friends. This cake, a family fa