Chocolate cake for someone special

It was my darling husband's birthday three weeks back and I decided to bake him his favorite - chocolate cake. I went to the local grocery store and picked up all that I needed only to forget the main ingredient chocolate powder ! So there I was with roughly two hours to bake a chocolate cake with no chocolate. I turned to my food guide the food network website and found this cake recipe which used hersheys' syrup instead of powder. And since it was a Paula Deen recipe I took the liberty of using only half the original quantity of syrup. The cake turned out to be yummy, nice and moist but firm and the chocolate content was just right. I used store bought frosting to give it the birthday look.

Cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 ounce hershey's chocolate syrup (the original recipe asked for 16 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Baking the cake
Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in another bowl. Add to creamed mixture, continuing to beat. Add vanilla and chocolate syrup to batter and mix well. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Just before cake is done, prepare frosting.

Banana Pecan cake

Banana isn't a fruit that one would associate with romance, but this valentine's day when its all about stawberries and cherries I opted for this banana cake for the sake of practicality, I later made up for the lack of chocolate in this recipie by adding a drizzle of hershey's syrup and making some frosted strawberries and coconut truffles on the side.
I took the recipie from the food network website and made some changes to scale it down . Here goes what I did exactly

Cake:
Butter, for greasing pans
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
1 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (original recipie said baking soda)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2large ripe bananas, mashed into a liquidy consistency with no lumps
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoons vanilla extract


Butter cake pan; set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cake:
In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the eggs and oil and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened; do not beat. Stir in the banana, pecans, and vanilla. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes in intervals of 1o mins each , or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake layers in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn them out onto a rack to cool completely.

Feast on your labour of love !