Cake!

I always thought it sounded a little strange when someone would say, "You can't have your cake and eat it, too." Why have it if you can't eat it? Somehow, it just didn't make sense.

Today's six cake recipes are in my e-cookbook, Off the Wall Cooking, including Rocky Road Cake and Red Velvet Cake. Enjoy!

ROCKY ROAD CAKE

I was taking a speech class at a local junior college. One week we had to give a demonstration speech; one lady demonstrated how to make this cake, passing out copies of the recipe along with pieces of cake. It’s absolutely delicious. The icing can be used on almost any kind of cake; it would be really good on carrot cake!

1 C chopped nuts

4 eggs

1 C raisins

1 C mayonnaise

1 C mini-marshmallows

1 C water

6 oz. package of chocolate

1 package (18.25 oz) Devil’s Food cake mix w/pudding

Grease & flour 2 9" pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix first four ingredients in medium-size bowl. In large bowl at low speed, mix cake mix, eggs, may & water until blended. Increase speed to medium & beat for 2 minutes. Stir in nut mixture. Pour into greased & floured pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes on cooling rack.

ICING(for Rocky Road Cake)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 stick butter

8 oz. cream cheese

1 box confectioners sugar

Place ingredients in bowl & cream together. When cake is cool, ice. ENJOY!

POOR MAN'S CAKE

Maryann and I went to high school together, then wrote back and forth for years. She managed to visit twice, two years apart. In one letter, she sent along this and the next recipe. "Maybe my cousin’s recipe," she wrote. We've since lost touch, but I've often wondered why ever happened to her.

1 C brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 C water

2 C flour, shifted

1/3 C oil

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 C raisins

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

Mix brown sugar, water, oil, raisins, nutmeg & cinnamon in pan. Boil 3 minutes. Cool thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients. Bake in square pan in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 35 minutes.

POOR MAN'S CAKE #2

Aunt Sammy’s Depression Days

Maryann wrote, "Mom’s recipe. 1931 era. Don’t know if it’s (era) important or not."

3 eggs

1 C sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

2 C bread crumbs

Mix all ingredients together, blending well by hand. Grease 8X8" baking pan. Press mix into pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Add raisins, fruit, or wine if available.

THE CAKE

This recipe was given to my mom by a friend, who worked as a lawyer for years. She was married to an Episcopal priest; both were involved in the civil rights movement.

1 package (18 oz.) yellow cake mix

1 egg, unbeaten

3/4 C oil

1 package (small) vanilla pudding

3/4 C sherry

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Put ingredients in bowl. Beat for 5 minutes. Pour into greased tube cake pan or mold. Bake for 45 minutes.

RED VELVET CAKE

We lived in Connecticut for several years while I was growing up. During this time, a lady called the local radio station and said she’d recently returned from a trip. During a stay in a fancy hotel with her husband, she had this cake in their restaurant. Returning home, she wrote to the hotel and requested a copy of the recipe, saying she’d pay for it. She received a copy of the recipe, along with a bill for $300. (This was during the mid-1960s.) Furious over the bill, she proceeded to read the recipe over the air.

1/2 C butter (note)

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 C sugar

1 C buttermilk

2 eggs, well beaten

1 T vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

2 T cocoa

2 1/4 C flour (sifted)

2 oz. red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour two 8" round pans. Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs. Make paste of food coloring & cocoa. Add to 1st mix. Add salt & buttermilk alternately with flour. Add vanilla. Dissolve soda in vinegar & add this last. Blend all ingredients, as little as possible. Pour into pans & bake for 30-40 minutes. When cool, split each layer horizontally.

FROSTING FOR RED VELVET CAKE

1 C butter (note)

1 C milk

1 C sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

5 T unbleached flour

Cream butter with sugar. Cook flour & milk in saucepan until very thick, stirring the whole time. Cool. Combine 2 mixes & add vanilla, using electric mixer. Spread on cake.

NOTE: Butter must be used in the frosting, otherwise the frosting will liquefy & refuse to harden. In the cake itself, though, margarine may be used. Also, if two 9" round pans are used, layers don’t need to be cut in half.

ROSALIE'S CHEESECAKE

This is from one of our neighbors when I was growing up in New York.

3 egg yolks

1/2 C evaporated milk

3/4 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 T unbleached flour, sifted

juice of 1/2 lemon

8 oz. (1 C) cottage cheese

3 T melted butter

3 egg whites

8 oz. cream cheese

Beat egg yolks with sugar & flour until lemon yellow. Add cream cheese, cottage cheese & flour. Add milk, vanilla & lemon juice. Beat all together & add melted butter during process. Stiffly beat egg whites & fold into mixture. Put into buttered spring form pan & bake at 350 degrees until brown, about 1 hour.