My Mom's Chocolate Satin Icing.

My mother clipped this recipe from The Chattanooga Times years ago; it's still in a notebook in her kitchen. She liked it so much, I don't remember her ever using another chocolate icing on cakes. It really is both delicious and beautiful. I don't know if it's coincidental or not, but every time I enter something in a fair with this icing, I bring home a ribbon.

• 1 stick butter
• 2 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon salt

Melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Add beaten egg and stir vigorously. Stir in powdered sugar, beat with wire whisk or electric beater. Remove from heat, mix in vanilla and lemon juice, then beat with electric beater or wire whisk until thickened. Pour over cooled cake and allow to drip down sides. Great on layer cakes, bundt cakes and brownies.

Double Chip Pound Cake

Glazed with my mom's special chocolate icing, this cake won the 2007 Pound Cake Contest at the Albemarle County Fair. I combined a from-scratch recipe from a friend's grandmother with the German chocolate and chips from a mix-based cake recipe I got from my aunt and member of my moms' email list.

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 2 sticks butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 6 eggs*
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 bar German chocolate, grated
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons salt

*Original recipe called for 4, contest requirements called for 6. I used 6 medium eggs with success.
Grease and flour Bundt cake or tube pan. Toss 1/4 cup flour with chocolate and butterscotch chips until coated. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix together remaining flour, baking powder, salt and grated chocolate. Slowly add to creamed mixture, stir just until blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into pan and bake at 325 degrees for 60 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool at least ½ hour in pan, then invert onto serving plate.

Iced Brownies

My daughter won a blue ribbon at the Albemarle County Fair with this recipe when she was 7. Adapted from recipes in the old Betty Crocker's Boys and Girls Cookbook, my first cookbook as a child.

• 4 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Melt chocolate and shortening in microwave. With wire whisk, beat in eggs and sugar. mix together last three ingredients, stir into chocolate mixture. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees in a greased square or rectangular brownie pan.

Icing:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon milk

Stir together until blended, add an extra tablespoon of milk if needed. Spread over brownies while they are still warm.

Mocha Truffle Torte

A third-place winner in the Hershey Bake-off of the 2006 Albemarle County Fair. I could have competed in the State Fair if I had had time to go!

Cake base:

• 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup strong coffee
• 6 oz semi- or bittersweet chocolate
• 6 tablespoons cocoa
• 4 eggs

Combine all ingredients except eggs; heat in microwave 2 minutes until melted. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in eggs. Pour in springform pan that is lined in buttered foil and dusted with flour. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes. Cool, remove from pan and place upright on cake plate.

Mousse filling:

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup hot coffee
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 stick soft better
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Pour coffee over chocolate chips, process in blender. Add egg yolks and vanilla, then butter, beating well. In large bowl, beat whipping cream until stiff. Gradually fold in chocolate mixture. Freeze mousse in a bowl lined with plastic wrap

Glaze:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons coffee
• dash of salt
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Mix first 4 ingredients, microwave until boiling. Stir in chocolate chips, stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

To prepare cake, invert frozen mousse on top of cake base, peel off plastic wrap. Pour glaze slowly over mousse and cake, covering mousse completely and allowing excess glaze to drip down sides of cake. Store cake in refrigerator until ready to serve.