I made this last weekend for my husband's birthday. I followed the recipe pretty closely--I did add the heaping teaspoon of instant coffee and dissolved the cocoa powder in the water as well because I read somewhere it helps bring out the chocolatey taste. My family enjoyed the cake. However, I have to agree with the reviewer who said it had a box-mix taste. I think it is better than a box-mix cake, but it does have that same sort of spongy texture. If you are looking for a denser cakey cake with a finer crumb, then you should find a recipe that calls for creaming the sugar and fat and then adding the dry ingredients. I just didn't have the energy, which is why I chose this simple recipe. It is pretty easy to prepare and there isn't a lot of cleanup afterwards. The batter was very thin and I was worried too, but it baked up just fine. I will probably make this again.

Reviewed On: Nov. 6, 2008

I made this recipe last week and my family enjoyed it. I presoaked the lentils for a couple of hours. I also added two thinly sliced carrots. The next time I might use dried porcinis instead of shitakes since they stayed a bit rubbery even after hours of cooking. Definitely use the savory since it makes the dish. Also, I needed the longer cooking time even with presoaking the lentils and using hot broth. I have small children so I didn't use that much pepper.

Reviewed On: Oct. 7, 2008

I have made these several times with my kids--they love making them and the recipe is so easy! (If you do it yourself you can make them in five minutes; with small kids, about 30!) They are very sweet so I usually cut the sugar to 1/2 cup and use whole wheat pastry flour, which I think works very nicely.

Reviewed On: Jun. 5, 2006