Chocolate cake. It's my all-time favorite dessert.

Is it just me, or is cake one of those words that sounds like what it is? Say it. Cake. It's the same with pudding. Say pudding. No other words in the English language say cake and pudding like cake and pudding. Maybe it's just me.

Anyway.

I love cake. Mostly chocolate, but I'll take whatever kind I'm offered. White, yellow, spice (especially Patricia Moroz' spice cake with buttercream frosting), carrot, marble, sponge, angel food, lemon. Even pistachio.

I used to make a green one called Watergate cake. It was so named because it was created around the time of the Watergate scandal in the ’70s. It calls for a white cake mix and instant pistachio pudding.

Not exactly the makings for a gourmet cake, right? But it's ridiculously good. And it's green — both the cake and the frosting. It always bring to mind the lyrics about the poison cake that Captain Hook served to the Lost Boys in “Peter Pan.” “I'll build a cake quite large and fill each layer in between with icing mixed with poison 'til it turns a tempting green.” I know a lot of the quotes from “Peter Pan,” thanks to my sister, Wendy, who memorized the original soundtrack album from the 1953 film, word-for-word.

Just for the record, I have a brother named Peter. And my real name is Tinkerbell. Just kidding.

Cakes actually evolved from sweetened versions of breads, and were made using yeast instead of baking powder and eggs. The history of cake dates back to the 13th century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. And get ready. The word cake is derived from the Norse word, kaka. Seriously. Google it. At some point in cake's history it was referred to by Romans as placenta. I'm just glad someone came up with the word cake.

The only time I didn't ask for a chocolate birthday cake when I was a kid was the time I asked for a pie crust full of whipped cream. Otherwise it was chocolate cake with whipped cream. Sometimes chocolate whipped cream.

Sue Mello loves chocolate cake too. Her favorite recipe is from the back of the Hershey Cocoa container. “It's an easy, sure thing,” she said. “I like to put raspberry sauce between the layers and serve it with more sauce.” She usually makes a flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce and whipped cream for her daughter's birthday. “It's Lizzie's choice for birthday cake,” she said. “It's outrageously good.”

I invented a little confection I called butterfly cupcakes when I was around 12. (Actually, maybe I didn't exactly invent them. I just Googled butterfly cupcakes and came up with all kinds of them.) Anyway, I would make chocolate cupcakes and cut a circle chunk out of the top, cut it in half, fill the hole with whipped cream, and place the two pieces up at an angle so they resembled butterfly wings. Then I'd sprinkle a little confectioner sugar on top. They were cute, and they were chocolate and whipped cream. Hello.

Back then I used Duncan Hines cake mix. If you have to use a cake mix, get Duncan Hines. If you don't have to use cake mix, don't. Cake made from scratch is a lot better, and it's not hard to do. I've been using a recipe I cut from a box of Baker's Chocolate for many years. It was called Chocolate Town Fudge Cake. But I think the name has been changed to Wellesley Cake. Same recipe.

The cake is so good, chocolatey and moist, that I sometimes make it in a sheet pan and just throw on a mound of whipped cream. REAL whipped cream, of course.

But when I feel like getting fancy, like I did for photos for this story, I make it in two round layers with the best chocolate frosting in the world between the layers, and whipped cream on top.

The frosting is one that was passed down from my great grandmother, Nana. My mother calls it “Elegant Frosting.” I really don't know if that was its real name. Elegant is one of my mother's favorite words, so she may have re-named it at some point. And the frosting IS elegant. It’s very dark chocolate and very shiny. And it is simple to make. It doesn't sound that great, made with water and cornstarch. But seriously. Try it.

Elegant Frosting

1 oz. (block) unsweetened Baker's Chocolate

½ cup sugar

½ cup water + 3 tblsp.

1 ½ tblsp. cornstarch

chunk of butter

pinch of salt

vanilla

Boil ½ cup water. Pour over chocolate and sugar in saucepan. Bring to boil. Dissolve cornstarch in 3 tblsp. water. Pour in to chocolate mixture and cook, stirring, till thick and shiny. Throw in a pinch of salt, a chunk of butter (1 tblsp. or so) and a tsp. Vanilla.

Cut a big slice and pour a glass of ice cold milk.

Trust me. It is elegant.