Week 17: The Crazy Cake Cure

Cake is the ultimate problem solver.
Or so I thought when I was a kid. I was eight when I baked my first cake for my mom to cheer her up, using a recipe from my Betty Crocker Cookbook for Kids.
I followed the directions to a T (unlike the way I cook now). When the cake was done, I let it cool and then used powdered sugar, Crisco and food color (blue and yellow) to make a decorator frosting, with which I wrote “#1 mom” and a blue ribbon using a butter knife and toothpicks.

When she arrived home from work the treat was waiting on the dining room table. She was surprised, proud and touched.  With my eight-year-old logic that meant the cake I made was a solution for the mood I could only understand as sadness then, but have since grown to understand was deep depression.  I continued to present her with cakes, cards, tissue flowers, songs…whatever I could come up with when she was in a dark spell, which became more and more frequent. I missed her hearty laugh and desperately wanted her to be okay.

So began my lifelong journey in cake baking as a love language.
Over the years, I’ve baked cakes to:
Cheer people up.
Celebrate every possible holiday.
Add a touch of romance.
I’ve baked cakes for my kids, nieces nephews, sisters, bridal showers, Sweet 16, cast parties… And for the most part, I still believe that while cakes can’t solve problems or create world peace, they definitely communicate love and make people smile.

Original Recipe
Crazy Cake

The Process
I haven’t made a Crazy Cake since I introduced it to my kids when they were younger and was excited find my mom’s stained and illustrated recipe card.

Last weekend was my birthday and I spent it alone (deliberately) to pamper myself with a spa weekend, which I topped off by making myself a cake.

There wasn’t a whole lot I could do to this recipe to make it healthy… after all, it’s cake in all it’s sugar and carb filled glory. I made a few substitutions such as whole wheat flour and cacao powder, which I think added more fiber, and substituted coconut oil for the vegetable oil.

The results were a very moist and delicious cake. Cacao has a milder chocolate flavor, so next time I’ll use regular cocoa powder to truly get the chocolate flavor.

Ingredients
1 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 Cup Organic Sugar
3 Tbsp  Cacao Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Tablespoon Vinegar ( I use Bragg’s cider with pulp)
6 Tbsp Melted Coconut Oil
1 Cup Cold Coffee ( or water)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°. Measure all dry ingredients into an 8 or 9 in. square pan. I use glass so that I can see through to make sure all of the dry ingredients are mixed.

Use a fork to blend all the ingredients thoroughly.

Make three holes or indentations.

Pour vanilla into one hole. Pour vinegar into the second hole. For the vegetable oil into the third hole… It will spill over the edge.

Pour the cup of cold liquid directly over everything in the pan.

Mix all the ingredients together with a fork until well blended.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes and serve warm from the oven with ice cream or allow the cake to cool and then frost or top with powdered sugar.

 

Week 17 Recipe Pick

This week’s recipe pick was a bit of a challenge… Cinco de Mayo is coming and I really wanted to make my mom’s  Tamale Pie, but I couldn’t find the original card in my box of recipes.
As it turns out, my sister Kyle had a photocopy, which I’ve shown here, and I found a recipe card handwritten by my late sister Kim.

For the next 4-6 weeks, I’m staying in a temporary apartment to be with my daughter who’s expecting a baby May 12. While I plan on continuing 52 Saturdays as committed…I have no idea how it’s going to work. It’s all part of the journey, right?