I made cake!

I started making a wacky cake, which is a chocolate cake from scratch last weekend, an old favorite from my childhood. My oldest daughter came into the kitchen and asked me if I was making the coffee cake with the raisins, another old favorite called depression cake.

I hadn’t gotten very far along with the Wacky cake, when the mention of the depression cake made me want that instead. My daughter said she’d rather have the wacky cake.

So I continued making the wacky cake, but I was thinking of the depression cake the whole time. After I put the wacky cake in the oven, I decided to make the depression cake, too. I don’t bake often anymore, so making two cakes in a day was kind of a big deal to me. I even made frosting for one of them.

I felt kind of entitled after that. I think my family should have done nothing less than bow down while acknowledging my master baking skills. All week, or at least as long as the cakes lasted, they should have worshiped the ground I walked on.

“Mom, I don’t want to do the dishes.”

“I made cake!”

“Honey, I don’t have time to change the oil in your car.”

“I made cake!”

“Mom, I can’t figure out my homework, could you help?”

“I made cake!”

“Mom, I don’t want to fold the clothes.”

“I made cake!”

I’m just sayin’, a little cake goes a long way. And I was queen for four days. Here are the cake recipes, neither of which have eggs. Maybe you can be the cake queen or king in your house.

Depression Cake

2 cups raisins

2 cups sugar

3 cups water

1 cups shortening

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoons nutmeg

1 teaspoons cloves

2 teaspoons soda

4 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

41/2 teaspoons salt

Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Boil first seven ingredients for five minutes. Remove from burner. Mix soda in small amount of water and add to mixture (this is volcanic action, so make sure you use a big enough pot).

Add to flour mixture and stir together.

Bake 50 minutes in greased and floured (or I just spray it with cooking spray) 9×12 pan at 350 degrees.

Wacky Cake

In the pan you will bake the cake in, Sift together three times:

3 cups flour, 2 cups Sugar, 2 teaspoons soda, 1 teaspoons salt, 6 tablespoons cocoa powder.

Put three dents in the mixture and in one add 3/4 cup vegetable oil, the next 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar and the last 2 teaspoons vanilla.

Pour 2 cups cold water over the whole thing and mix right in the baking pan.

350 degrees for metal pan

325 degrees for glass pan

Bake 30-45 minutes until done.