Have you ever been to a party with over 10,000 people attending?  I have!  Mike and I recently visited the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show in Houston.  I believe it is the 6^th year of this show, although I kept getting different answers.  The down-home cooking queen, Paula Deen, demonstrated some of her favourite recipes.  There were twenty-two other chefs, entertainment experts and grub gurus sharing their kitchen secrets.

The Metro Show is the only award winning consumer event in the nation for cooking and entertaining enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels.  We experienced more than 200 exhibitors, saw live cooking demos by renowned chefs and participated in numerous cooking and entertaining workshops.

I would say it was the “super bowl” of cooking and entertaining and catered to those with a passion for both.  Most of the exhibitors were selling their ware, but many were only sampling their “order only” foodstuffs.  And we participated in tasting after tasting after tasting with no complaint!

There were a few purchases made, mostly autographed celebrity chef’s cook books and a jalapeno shaped pepper popper cooker.  This was the one item I was hoping to find.  I crossed a couple of names off my Christmas shopping list with some specialty gifts.

Mike and I sampled food and beverages, learned a few cooking and entertaining techniques and had an incredibly enjoyable day.  Of all the sampled products, the one that I found amazing was “Dukes Chocolate Cake”.  The product that was being introduced was “Dukes Mayonnaise”.  Although I had heard of cakes with mayonnaise instead of egg and oil (which makes great sense as mayonnaise is mostly egg and oil) I had never tried making one.

The sampled cake was the moistest and most “chocolatey” I have ever eaten!  I’m a bit of a skeptic and researched several sights to compare other chocolate cake recipes including mayonnaise.  I am pleased to tell you that none I compared were the same or, in my opinion, would have been as good.  After my research, I made the cake exactly as printed to rave reviews.  I know this brand of mayonnaise may not be available everywhere, so use a premium brand and I promise to never tell.

Duke’s Chocolate Cake

Cake Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp. cocoa
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 ½ cups Duke’s Mayonnaise
• 1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups cold water

Cake Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.  Sift cocoa, flour, baking soda, salt and sugar into a medium bowl, mix well.  Combine mayonnaise, vanilla and water with an electric mixer at low speed.  Once smooth, slowly add dry mixture until just incorporated (do not overbeat).  Pour batter into cake pans and bake for 30 minutes or until done.  Cool on wire racks and frost with chocolate icing.

Chocolate Icing Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 5-6 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 6 or more Tbsp. milk

Chocolate Icing Directions

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and cocoa with whisk attachment until smooth.  Add vanilla.  Add confectioners’ sugar alternately with milk until icing reaches a spreadable consistency.  (You may not need all 6 cups of sugar; you may need more than 6 tablespoons of milk.)