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Upside down chocolate-syrup cake from the 1960s?

I'm haunted by a childhood memory of making a chocolate cake in our cast iron pan (may or maynot have been recipe specific). In my memory I thought this was a Hershey's syrup can recipe. Hershey's has no recollection of this. I've no idea of other brands which may have been in my NH area, but I recall a very moist "self-frosting" cake which, when inverted after a 10 minute rest would drip chocolate goo down the sides of a perfectly done easy-enough-for-a-10 yr old-to make cake. I'm hoping SOMEONE in the hive might both validate my memory and maybe have a copy of the paper which wrapped that can and share a recipe. The child in my thanks you in advance!

Comments

  • Hi Theresa - This is basically a chocolate pudding cake. The current recipe on the Hershey's website calls for cocoa powder, sugar, and water, not Hershey's syrup but at some point it probably did. Many food manufacturers in the 1960s, an era of cake mixes and time-saving recipes, would alter recipes to try to sell products that could be used in the recipe, so it's possible they had a version using Hershey's syrup in place of the cocoa powder, brown sugar and water. The only version I could find made with syrup was a version that is intended for food service and scaled beyond what a home cook would want. But I wonder if you could take the recipe that calls for making the sauce with cocoa powder, sugar, and water and replace that with chocolate syrup? That's probably how I would start if I were recreating this recipe. My guess is that the basics of that one on the Hershey's site now is the same as it was in the 60s. There was probably a brief time when it had Hershey's syrup in it instead. Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C.

  • OMG! You are spot on. My childhood self thought 'syrup' but this is exactly what it was....hot water! For years I've wanted to recreate this recipe and hit a wall. Thank you! I'll try it this weekend, as soon as I think of an excuse!

  • My mom still has the actual recipe card she wrote out in the 60s. Also a childhood favorite of ours. I have tried to make it a few times over the last 20 years. It needs the old fashoined CAN of Hershey's syrup, I haven't had any success with the modern version of Hershey's syrup.

  • My Mother claimed to have “lost” thus recipe when I was 6. I finally found it in her recipe box 53 years later. I can’t wait to try it to see if it’s as delicious as I remember.

    It’s called Self Frosted Yellow Cake. I took a picture of the recipe to post it, but I can’t figure out how to post a picture. It looks like it was in a Pillsbury Baking Book.

  • Hi Karen - To post a photo to the board you can click on the icon at the bottom of the comment screen that looks like a mountain landscape. Then select the photo from wherever it lives on your computer. Our system only accepts jpeg photos, though, so make sure the photo is in the jpeg format. If it's not (iPhone photos are sometimes saved as HEIC or HEIF since this photo format takes up less space), you can covert it to jpeg by exporting the photo from the photo app onto your desktop and then attaching that file to your comment. Hope that helps! Best, The Milk Street Team

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