One of those things I remember from my childhood was a cake Mom used to make us. It was called a Wacky Cake… or perhaps Whacky Cake. It’s an eggless cake that was developed during WWII… or perhaps a bit earlier, during the Great Depression.
Whatever, it was one of my favorite deserts. As I grew up, Mom would make it for special occasions, and non- alike. It was ubiquitous throughout my growing up, and into my adult years. When coming home from a semester at college, or after years away in the Army, Mom would have it for me. The last time she made it was sometime around 1996 or 1997.
I’ve been wanting it so much ever since then! Over the past year, I came across the recipe for it, and when we went up to Rendezvous, I made sure we had all the ingredients… well, I asked Scott to make sure we had all the ingredients. He did pretty good… but forgot the powdered sugar.
First of all, if you are not a good cook, there are times NOT to attempt to cook something new. Second of all, if you are a lousy baker, there are times NOT to try to bake something new. Third, whether or not you are good at either, if you want to try a brand new recipe, there are times you don’t do that.
One of those times for all three scenarios is… don’t try something new when you are cooking in a small, undersized propane powered oven at 8,500 feet. NOTHING cooks the same at 8,500 feet as it does at 990 feet. Nothing.
First off, a recipe that says “Bake at 350 for 30 minutes”… try an hour!
The recipe calls for one to add a bunch of dry ingredients (I don’t have them with me right now… look for an add-on note later on) together with a whisk, do not blend! I did this.
Then you add a bunch of wet ingredients, still using a whisk, not a blender. I did this.
Then put it in to bake. As indicated above, the 30 minutes called for turned into a full hour. The trailer smelled FANTASTIC!
Then I started to make the frosting. It calls for powdered sugar. We didn’t have any. Only granulated sugar… so I used that. I won’t go into it, but, that was lousy frosting.
My friends and I ate the cake that night. Each of them, Scott and the two ladies, mm’ed and ahh’ed… ever so nicely.
It (the cake) was guddawful! I ate my entire piece. I had to. But it was horrible.
Something in it separated, and the bottom half was bitter.
I will NOT give up. I shall conquer this cake.
But only at lower elevations!
On The Road II 