prayer for a chocolate cake

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A while back, my daughter made a chocolate cake I liked quite a lot -- nothing but chocolate cake mix out of a box plus a can of pureed pumpkin. It came out not too sweet and with a nice density.

But when I tried to do it ... it was not so good as hers. Undercooked perhaps or with some other flaw, but not up to snuff.

So now I am trying again and saying my chocolate cake prayers -- straight out of the Book of Chocolate Cake Dharanis. I would really, really like to turn out better this go around, but the cake will make its mind up I suppose.

I already made the hard-sauce icing (a vanilla confection) to go on top. It's fine -- a dentist's delight ... powdered sugar, butter and vanilla ... hard to go wrong.

But the cake itself ... oh my!... let me get back to my beseeching prayers!

PS. It tastes good, but did not rise, despite all my caterwauling. I think my daughter forgot to tell me something important ... like adding eggs, for example.
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