"ESPECIALLY DARK" CAKE from Hershey's

Excellent recipe. It comes from Hershey's. This is my first time using Dutch process cocoa powder. I used Hershey's brand and they call theirs "Special Dark." I did use one less tablespoon for half the recipe. This is one of those cakes that uses vegetable oil and you add boiling water at the end. This has to be the six or seventh one like it that I've made over the last ten years. It's as moist as a boxed Devil's Food cake and just as good, if not better, tasting. 

I made half the recipe and used this Wilton 8-cavity mini loaf pan. My eight mini loaves baked in 17 minutes and I used just over 1/3 c. batter for each (each cavity holds 2/3 c.), to half made a little less than 2 3/4 c. batter. I would suggest you use 9"x2" baking pans and not the standard 1.5" deep ones. These are sticky but after cooling only the top remains (very) sticky. Make sure you line your baking pan fully with foil or parchment paper, or use liners for cupcakes. 

I made my own pourable chocolate glaze for the tops of these. The frosting Herhey's uses for this recipe is similar but you only melt the butter, not the milk too. I couldn't use that because for half the recipe, which is what I'd have needed, they have you use 1/3 c. Dutch process cocoa (5 1/3. T.) I only used 1.5 T., almost 1/4 c. less. I used my own buttercream frosting recipe (using Blue Bonnet spread and an almost equal amount of shortening) and layered it between each loaf that I'd cut in half after they'd cooled, then poured my cooled down thick glaze on it. Each little loaf is about 2" tall after frosting and glazing it.

I grade this recipe an A++ even though I used one less tablespoon of cocoa.