I make this cake for birthdays or other celebrations, most recently for my parents for their 25th wedding anniversary. This is a great cake to dress up with fillings. It is a light cake, after a filling meal. You can freeze the cake part for a month or two.

You can make it ahead of time, either placing it in the refrigerator or freezer. This cake gets better as it stands. I like to make this cake and let it stand at least overnight.

If you want to impress someone, this cake is it. Practice a few times and this cake is a breeze.

Cake

5 eggs, room temperature

A pinch of kosher salt

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/3 of a cup of a good quality cocoa powder

2/3 of a cup of cake flour (I like King Arthur cake flour.)

¾ of a cup of sugar

¼ cup of neutral oil like safflower or sunflower oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Get a bottom-lined (parchment paper) 9-inch cheesecake pan and lightly butter the parchment paper and the sides of the pan. Dust the paper with cocoa powder, just to lightly cover it. Tap out all the access cocoa powder over a paper towel. Sift your dry ingredients together twice.

Put these dry ingredients back into the sifter, until you are ready to use them later. In a small measuring cup, add your vanilla and your oil. Set this aside also for now. In your KitchenAid mixing bowl (if you have one — any bowl works), combine the eggs, a pinch of salt, your sugar. Whisk to combine and place this over a double-boiler. Cook for about 3-5 minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is quite warm or 150 degrees Fahrenheit on an instant-read thermometer. With the whisk attachment, mix at medium high speed for 3-5 minutes, until light yellow and doubles or triples in volume. The batter will be very airy.

Place your bowl on the counter, and take out about ½ a cup of your egg white mixture. Add this ½ of a cup of egg whites mixture into the measuring cup with the vanilla and oil. Mix these ingredients together, until all is evenly mixed together. This is so that the oil will sink to the bottom of the bowl. The two different textures have two different densities. Put this to the side.

Now, take that sifter full of dry ingredients and sift about 1/3 of the dry ingredients over the egg white mixture. Gently fold in, until almost all of the cocoa powder is incorporated. You may see chocolate streaks at this point, which is fine. Sift another third on top of the batter and fold it in again until almost all is incorporated again. Before you add the last bit of dry ingredients, now add your egg and oil mixture and then sift the rest of the flour over that. Gently fold until you do not get any more streaks of chocolate. This will ensure not overmixing and deflating the batter.

Pour this batter, gently, into your lined cheesecake pan. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs attached. The cake will have risen quite high.

Cool, in the pan, on a cooling rack for a few minutes so that it will be easy to remove from your pan. Run a thin knife around the outside of the cake, to loosen. Remove the sides of the springform pan. Take a knife and go underneath the cake and parchment paper, to separate the cake from the pan. Allow to cool on the rack, until completely cool. Cover, on a plate, with plastic wrap. You can freeze the cake now, after wrapping it well, for a party, dinner or weekend.

To serve, top it with your favorite frosting.