Who doesn’t love chocolate cake? Chocolate – the universal staple! But why? Why is chocolate cake so favored? So sought after at all the school carnival cake walks? At birthday parties? Why do some restaurants serve up a big double decker slice of chocolate cake, with chocolate icing topped with one candle as the entire wait staff claps and sings goofy songs aimed at the birthday guest?

There is actually a chemical reason why chocolate is so adored. According to Distinguished Professor, Dr. Bankole A. Johnson, chocolate's ingredients have a significant impact on brain chemistry. Dr. Johnson is one of the country's foremost researchers of addictive behavior, particularly in the areas of alcoholism and cocaine abuse. “Chocolate is a drug, too,” he notes, with specific pharmacological actions.

The sweet stuff contains cannabinoids, the compounds responsible for the high of marijuana. The concentration is too low to cause an effect. More significantly, chocolate contains caffeine and two substances, tyramine and tryptophan, that the brain converts into the feel-good chemicals dopamine and serotonin.

"It stimulates the brain's pleasure centers," Dr. Johnson says. The result: We like chocolate, and we want to enjoy it again and again. Our memories create a powerful conditioned response. "Even opening the wrapper and looking at the contents starts your serotonin fibers firing," Dr. Johnson says.

Interesting. Just in case all this talk about chocolate cake as your mouth watering below are a few delicious chocolate cake recipes. One is eggless, for those of you who are allergic to eggs. The second recipe is flourless for the carb counters. And finally what recipe collection isn’t complete without the famous Death by Chocolate Cake. Enjoy!

QUICK CHOCOLATE EGGLESS CAKE
1-1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp vinegar

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a small baking pan (8x8) with vegetable spray or Baker's Joy. Combine dry ingredients directly in the pan. Mix all the wet ingredients. In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients leaving out the vinegar until the final step. Combine wet and dry ingredients, stirring together in pan until well combined. Stir in the vinegar rapidly and immediately place pan into preheated oven and bake for 25 to 30 min. BETTER YET: You can stir in 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips just before baking to make a richer cake with melted chocolate bits or swirls.

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
This fabulous flourless recipe uses healthy honey rather than white sugar, so you can feel a little better about serving it. It’s still pretty decadent, but well worth every sinfully delicious bite!

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into bits
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 eggs, separated, at room temperature
1/2 cup honey, divided
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Butter a 9- or 10-inch springform pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper or waxed paper. Butter the paper and flour the entire pan. Wrap the outside of the pan with foil.

Preheat oven to 350F and set a rack in the center of the oven.

Place the butter and chocolate in a bowl and set the bowl over, but not touching, a pot of hot water set on low heat. Do not allow water to boil. Stir occasionally and check to see when it is melted. Stir to blend and remove from the heat.

Cool mixture to lukewarm. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and 1/4 cup of the honey with an electric mixer in a large bowl for 3 minutes, until the mixture is very thick and pale. Fold in the lukewarm chocolate mixture and then fold in the vanilla and salt. In another large bowl, using clean, dry beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup honey, beating until medium-firm peaks form. Fold the whites into the chocolate mixture in three additions. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake the cake 50 minutes until the top is puffed (and possibly cracked) and a tester inserted in the center comes out with some moist crumbs attached. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack. Be forewarned: the cake will fall quite a bit.

Using a small knife, cut around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake and then remove the sides. Place a 9-inch tart pan bottom or cardboard round atop the cake. Invert the cake onto the tart pan bottom. Peel off the parchment paper. Invert the cake back on the serving platter.

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE CAKE
4 Eggs
1 c Sour cream
1/2 c Water
1/2 c Oil
1 pk Chocolate cake mix
1 pk Chocolate instant pudding
12 oz Semisweet chocolate chips
Confectioner's sugar

Beat eggs, sour cream, water, and oil together in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed. Add cake mix and pudding mix. Beat until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into Bundt or tube pan and bake at 350 F for 1 hour. When cool, sift powdered sugar on top of cake. Variation: Replace 1/4 cup water with Grand Marnier.

Just be careful! Too much chocolate causes a headache, however. "That's probably due to the rush of serotonin, but no one has really studied it," Dr. Johnson says. "It's interesting that while too much serotonin can cause headaches, other medications that interact with serotonin in a different way are used to treat migraine and cluster headaches."

Now please pass the cold milk and another piece of cake!