"wacky cake" news and stories

Alanna tipped me off to a cute story about a cook and a cake, and what happens when you make a mistake in the kitchen:

There are some ingredients that aren't supposed to go into cakes, but accidents happen. For example, too much salt could stirred into a batter or some of the flour could be left out. When things like this happen, there are people who simply can't bring themselves to waste the cake. They eat it anyway and, once in a while, it turns out better than expected.

The woman in the story was making a chocolate cake for her garlic-loving husband as a followup to a garlic-filled meal. Since she was cooking and baking at the same time, she accidentally knocked a container of powdered garlic into the cake batter. After scooping out as much as she could, she decided to bake the cake anyway and served it, frosted, to family and friends at dinner. They raved over how "unusual" the cake was, even though there was a flavor that no one could seem to identify.

While I don't get the impression that the cook was planning to make any more garlicky cakes, her husband "ate every bite of the leftover garlic chocolate cake by himself  - with great gusto." So if you're a garlic fan, you might actually enjoy this mistake.  The cake was a "wacky" cake, rich and moist on its own, but if you want to try to get the garlic variation, you'll have to experiment yourself.

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This particular type of chocolate cake has many, many names: wacky cake, dump-it cake, one-pan cake, one-bowl cake, eggless cakes, easy chocolate cakes, vinegar cake. Though the ingredients vary from cake to cake, the concept is the same because all the recipes are for cakes made entirely in one bowl or even mixed directly in the pan. This means that it takes next to no time to prepare them and the cleanup is even less than it is for a cake mix - not to mention that you get a homemade chocolate cake in about an hour!

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's food section rounded up a group of bakers and put six one-bowl chocolate cake recipes to the test, including cakes from Martha Stewart and Nigella Lawson. The bakers had the same complaints about Nigella's recipe that I have had in the past, namely that her instructions aren't very clear and if you don't already know what you're doing, your cake can come out terribly. Martha's cake, which did use eggs, tasted great and the panel also loved a classic "crazy cake" recipe, which calls for vinegar and no eggs. The full results and winning recipes can be found here, and are a must-read for any baker or chocolate cake lover.

[Image Post Gazette]

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