10 Vintage Chocolate Treats That Deserve A Comeback

Chocolate will always be a top-tier dessert ingredient. We’ve been adding this universally-loved creation to sweet treats for over 300 years, and it’s clear to see why. Chocolate brings richness, sweetness, and indulgence. Put simply, it makes everything better. So it’s no wonder that there are a seemingly endless array of chocolate-based desserts made in all corners of the world. The favorites like chocolate cake, brownies, mousse, and ice cream have stood the test of time, but some once-popular recipes have somewhat fallen off the radar in the modern culinary scene. However, there are plenty of retro chocolate delights that we firmly believe still deserve a place in our kitchens today.

Some of these treats might spark childhood nostalgia, perhaps bringing back memories of your grandma’s cooking or dinners at school. Others might be completely new to you, leaving you intrigued to give them a try. Either way, these chocolate-loaded recipes can all absolutely still be made today, and they’ll taste just as great as they did in their heyday.

Read more: 11 Once-Popular Desserts That No One Eats Anymore

Coca-Cola cake

This old-fashioned Southern cake combines the unlikely duo of chocolate and Coca-Cola, creating a sweeter, stickier version of your average chocolate sheet cake. The chocolate flavor comes from cocoa powder, while buttermilk keeps the sponge moist, and the acidity of the cola gives it a wonderfully tender texture. Some recipes also feature mini marshmallows, which are stirred right into the batter before baking. For the topping, there’s a glaze-like frosting, made with butter, cocoa powder, and more cola.

It’s unclear exactly when the idea of adding Coca-Cola to chocolate cake batter originated, but such recipes became especially popular throughout the Southern states in the 1950s, with recipes like Velvet Cola Cake and Spiced Coca-Cola Cake starting to pop up. By the 1960s, countless Southern newspapers were publishing cola cake recipes, and it fast became a staple on family tables. But it was in the 1990s that this cake really started to receive wider recognition, thanks to restaurant chain Cracker Barrel adding it to its menu. The glowing reviews came in thick and fast, with various publishers praising the cake for its pleasing sweet taste and gooey texture. In fact, Coca-Cola cake is the delicious dessert Ina Garten dubbed “crazy good” when she was joined by guests to make it on her show.

While this cake’s popularity seems to have waned in recent years, it’s a dessert that’s absolutely worth a try, especially if you have a sweet tooth. We love the fuss-free approach and how easy it is to elevate with extra add-ins or toppings.

Chocolate cobbler

Cobblers certainly haven’t gone out of fashion, but today, they’re more commonly made with fruits like apples, peaches, or plums. However, go back a few decades, and a chocolate version of this beloved cozy treat had a prominent place on the dessert scene. This warm, fudgy delight is another Southern-born recipe. It has its roots in the Depression Era, when making the most of easily accessible store cupboard staples was essential. Chocolate cobbler was also popular during the 1950s, and it may well be something you remember your grandma making back in the day.

This dessert sits somewhere between a cake and a pudding, with a crispy top, a moist, cakey texture beneath, and that mouthwatering layer of lava-like chocolate sauce. In fact, this recipe is similar to the more modern chocolate lava cakes we often see on restaurant menus today. To make chocolate cobbler, you’ll need flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. For the wet ingredients, there’s milk, melted butter, and vanilla. With everything combined into a smooth batter, this is poured into a baking dish and topped with a mixture of brown sugar and cocoa powder before a layer of hot water is poured on top (but not stirred). These final steps are the secret to creating that crisp top and molten layer below as the cobbler bakes.

Chocolate concrete

Famously served in British school canteens between the 1970s and 1990s, chocolate concrete might not look especially appetizing at first glance. However, this dessert has a special place in the hearts of students and school workers who once tucked into it on the regular. It’s a bake with a sturdy texture, hence the name, but this is more of a pleasant, shortbread-like crunch rather than the tooth-breaking visions that the word “concrete” might conjure up.

This dessert’s popularity among school cooks was likely due to its uncomplicated nature. Making it involves simply combining flour, sugar, and cocoa powder before mixing in melted butter, pressing everything into a tin, and baking it in the oven. Cutting the chocolate slab into slices while it’s still warm is vital, since it firms up fast as it cools. On the school menu, chocolate concrete was traditionally served with a pink custard that was made with strawberry or raspberry powdered blancmange mix, milk, and sugar. This likely added some welcomed moisture to the dense, chocolatey slices.

Bumpy cake

With its pleasing rows of bright white frosting, bumpy cake is a decadent treat that hails from Michigan. It was created by Fred Sanders Schmidt, owner of Detroit-based Sanders Confectionary, in 1912. And the unique application of the buttercream frosting was something that happened entirely by accident. When testing his recipe, Sanders began with a rich chocolate sponge base, which he intended to frost with vanilla buttercream and top with a layer of chocolate fudge icing. However, the baker realized he didn’t have quite enough buttercream to cover the entire cake, so he opted for a different approach. Instead, he piped rows of the white frosting atop the cake, which gave it a distinct bumpy appearance once the chocolate icing had been poured on top.

Sanders’ cake was a hit with his customers, who subsequently started to request “the cake with the bumps,” and it fast became a regular offering in his store. Today, you’ll still find multiple Sanders stores in Michigan, which now sell the famous bumpy cake in carrot and vanilla flavors, as well as the classic chocolate.

Arctic roll

Cake and ice cream are a classic pairing, but how about combining the two together into one impressive frozen dessert? An Arctic Roll does just that, and this tempting Swiss-roll-style treat has been around since the late 1950s. It was developed in Sussex in the UK by ice cream factory owner Dr. Ernest Veldenin. His original version combined vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce, all rolled up in a soft vanilla sponge cake. Fast-forward to the 1970s, and British frozen food manufacturer Birds Eye released its own version of the product, and the treat quickly became a hit across Britain. As other brands followed suit with similar products, many found ways to incorporate chocolate into the dessert, which obviously went down a treat.

The retro roll was also a favorite among home bakers, and the chocolate element could be added in various formats. One option is to flavor the sponge cake itself with cocoa powder, giving it a rich color and deep chocolatey flavor. Alternatively, the traditional vanilla ice cream filling can be switched out for a chocolate version. Another idea is to encase the entire roll in a layer of chocolate, which sets to create a hard shell and makes for a satisfying textural contrast. A variant that proved popular in the 1970s and ’80s was the Black Forest gateau-inspired take on the Arctic roll, featuring a chocolate sponge, cherry jam, and cherry-vanilla ice cream.

Maine potato candy

Yes, there really is potato in these candies, but at first bite, you probably wouldn’t know it. Maine potato candies, which are also known as Needhams, are chocolate-covered, no-bake treats. They’re made by mixing cooled mashed potatoes with powdered sugar, shredded coconut, and vanilla extract, then chilling the mixture and slicing it into small rectangles. The portions are then frozen, dipped in a melted chocolate coating, and left to set. Thanks to its fairly neutral taste, the potato is very much overshadowed by the other sweet, coconutty flavors and acts simply as a binding agent that gives the bites their soft and chewy texture.

Originating in Auburn, Maine, the candies were first made by a chef at confectionary shop Seavey’s Sweets in the 1870s. This was a time when potatoes were one of the most widely available products in the state, so chefs were always looking for creative new ways to use the humble root veggie. The potato-based coconut creams were loved by customers, and company owner John Seavey decided to nickname the treat “Needhams” after the then widely respected preacher George C. Needham. The name stuck, and it wasn’t long before the potato candies were well and truly ingrained in Maine culture.

Chocolate mayonnaise cake

Chocolate cake has seen some interesting add-ins over the years, from vegetables like beetroot and zucchini to white vinegar, which features in the famous Depression-Era Wacky Cake. But another tool that’s often overlooked for enhancing this timeless dessert is mayonnaise. The popular condiment can in fact be used in place of the traditional eggs and butter, yielding a tender, melt-in-your-mouth crumb without any noticeable mayo taste.

This unique take on chocolate cake was made famous by mayonnaise brand Hellman’s in 1937, after its parent company printed the recipe in a dessert booklet titled “Cakes and Cookies With Personality: Exciting New Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, and Frostings.” The recipe had been developed by the wife of Paul Price, who worked as a sales executive for Hellman’s. The cake was rich and moist, and home bakers loved how convenient it was to prepare. It served as a staple throughout World War II when eggs and butter were scarce, and today, Hellman’s still features the recipe on its website.

As well as bringing moisture and richness, there are a few other reasons why mayonnaise works so well in a cake. Firstly, it adds acidity to the batter, since it contains vinegar. This acid reacts with baking soda, helping the cake rise to fluffy perfection. Secondly, the salt component of mayo helps to balance the sweetness of other ingredients in the cake beautifully. So, the chocolate-mayo twist is definitely worth a try!

Church window cookies

These striking cookies boast heaps of buttery, chocolatey flavor and gorgeous multicolored pockets in the form of pastel mini marshmallows. With their vibrant, mosaic-like appearance, the idea is that each mallow-studded cookie resembles the intricate patterns of a stained glass church window.

Most popular between the 1950s and 1970s, these cookies were understandably a common feature in church cookbooks and often made around Christmastime. There’s actually no baking required to make them, with the ingredients being shaped into a large log, chilled, and sliced into individual rounds. Step one is melting chocolate with butter. After stirring in the colored marshmallows and some chopped walnuts, the mixture is rolled up in wax paper with a shredded coconut coating before being transferred to the fridge. For something that requires no more than 20 minutes of prep time, the resulting dessert has an undeniably impressive look, and we’d say it definitely deserves a place in modern-day kitchens.

Almond buttercrunch candy

Almond buttercrunch candy is America’s decadent take on the classic British toffee, and this nutty, chocolate-covered delight dates back to the 1900s. While traditional toffee is typically made with sugar and butter and left in its plain form, it’s the extra add-ins that make buttercrunch unique. The almonds can be stirred into the toffee mixture itself or scattered over the chocolate topping before everything is left to set. Either way, they add an irresistible crunch and plenty of toasty flavor.

One of the earliest versions of buttercrunch was produced by Harry L. Brown and J.C. Haley in Tacoma, Washington. In 1923, they launched Almond Roca, a brand that’s still going strong today. People enjoyed creating homemade buttercrunch, too, and the candy’s popularity spiked during World War II, when its durable nature made it an ideal treat for families to send out to soldiers on the front line. In fact, almond buttercrunch became so popular that it earned itself a national day of appreciation, which is celebrated on June 29th each year.

To make a batch of old-fashioned buttercrunch, you’ll first melt butter with sugar, corn syrup, and water in a saucepan, cooking the mixture until it reaches a temperature of 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, you can stir in the chopped toasted almonds and spoon everything into a rectangular pan. It’ll quickly harden, ready for the melted chocolate topping to be spread on top, along with a final scattering of nuts if desired.

Chocolate delight

A truly moreish layered creation with plenty of room for customization, chocolate delight is a Southern icebox dessert that’s also known by an array of amusing names, including Girdle Buster, Piggy Pudding, and Dieter’s Delight. It’s a treat that certainly brings the indulgence factor, typically featuring rich layers of cream cheese, chocolate pudding, and whipped topping. The exact origins of chocolate delight aren’t well-documented, but it featured heavily on family dinner tables throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Many people report this dessert as being their grandmother’s favorite and therefore have their own specific way of making it, just like granny did.

The dessert generally begins with a layer of baked, buttery crust, which often has chopped pecans incorporated into it. When it comes to the fillings, creaminess is the vibe, but the exact selection of layers can absolutely be adapted to your taste. Some might include peanut butter or other instant pudding flavors such as banana or pistachio. You can totally stir in some warming spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, too. And when it comes to topping the chocolate delight, you can go for chocolate chips or shavings, sprinkles, crunchy pretzel pieces, or even fresh fruit.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.