Health and Fitness News

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.

Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here.

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National Chocolate Cake Day

In America, chocolate was consumed primarily as a beverage until the 1830s or 40s. Chocolate cakes, as we think of them today, mostly did not exist then. According to the Dover Post, the chocolate cake was born in 1765 when a doctor and a chocolate maker teamed up in an old mill. They ground up cocoa beans between huge millstones to make a thick syrup. The liquid was poured into molds shaped like cakes, which were meant to be transformed into a beverage.

A popular Philadelphia cookbook author, Eliza Leslie, published the earliest chocolate cake recipe in 1847 in The Lady’s Receipt Book. Unlike chocolate cakes we know today, this recipe used chopped chocolate. Other cooks of the time such as Sarah Tyson Rorer and Maria Parloa all made contributions to the development of the chocolate cake and were prolific authors of cookbooks.

The first boxed cake mix was created by a company called O. Duff and Sons in the late 1920s. Betty Crocker released their first dry cake mixes in 1947.

Chocolate Cake

This cake will be tender and moist. It makes a good layer cake, cupcakes, or eat-out-of-the-pan cake, with a fine crumb that you can pick up with the back of your fork.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

This flourless cake, featuring both chocolate and cocoa, is rich, rich, RICH! A chocolate ganache glaze takes it over the top. And, since it contains neither flour nor leavening, it’s perfect for Passover. And, of course, also ideal for those following a gluten-free diet.

Tunnel-of-Fudge Cake

The original tunnel-of-fudge cake won second place in the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest for the late Ella Rita Helfrich of Houston. That version used a fudge icing mix to create a gooey chocolate center. But Pillsbury discontinued the icing mix, and the resulting clamor of home bakers led Pillsbury to release a recipe for making tunnel-of-fudge cake from scratch.

Chocolate Streusel Poundcake

In this stunning dessert, a moist and soft chocolate poundcake is topped on two sides — bottom and top — with crunchy, slightly salty streusel flecked with chocolate chips.

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