Monday, February 6, 2012

Old dogs, new tricks. Spice cake, anyone?

You know the saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks," right? Well, I'm an old dog when it comes to hanging out in the kitchen. I don't particularly like to cook. Never have. And if I'm going to do something I don't like to do, it had better be easy.
Forget quiche. I use the quiche pan my daughter gave me as a pie tin at Thanksgiving.
Parmesan chicken? Too involved. Early morning, put frozen chicken drummies in a crockpot with some water, a good spoonful of chicken soup base from the local WINCO and maybe add some celery leaves for flavor. Just before dinner, boil some spuds and heat up a can of beans or corn, thicken the liquid in the crockpot with corn starch thickener so there's some gravy and there you go. Quick and sweet and can't be beat.
Like I said, I want it simple.
I don't generally take the time for a dessert - I don't figure we need it - but once in a while I get to hankering for something. Yesterday it was applesauce...some of the cinnamon-flavored applesauce I canned last fall. But applesauce by itself didn't seem right. That's when I thought of spice cake.
Now, maybe old dogs don't learn new tricks all that easy but I'm here to tell you I learned a new baking trick yesterday that's a winner and I want to pass it along.
See, Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest, right? Except at our house. Yesterday was especially crammed so we opened a couple jars of home-canned spaghetti sauce, threw some pasta in a pot and concocted a salad out of a can of fruit cocktail, an orange from the fridge and an apple or two that an older neighbor gave us after we helped her clean off her apple tree last fall. But I wanted something more...something spicy. A spice cake with applesauce topping sounded just right. With someone coming for help on the computer, though, I didn't have time to make one.
That's when Rick stepped in.
My sweet husband knows I don't generally like cake mix cakes. I much prefer the made-from-scratch cakes like what we ate at Mathilde's table. I guess homemade is a slice of home for me.
However, he had this Betty Crocker golden vanilla cake mix stashed away on one of the high shelves of the cupboard so he fished it out thinking I could still have the dessert I wanted - cake with applesauce - without cutting into the time I'd promised someone else.
I looked at that box of cake mix and thought, "A white cake with applesauce? That just doesn't seem right. Not interested."
Then a lightbulb went off. I grabbed my  40+ year old Joy of Cooking cookbook, looking for my favorite spice cake recipe. 2 tsp. of cinnamon, 1 tsp of cloves and 1/2 tsp of allspice later, we had a spice cake that was even better than my made-from-scratch cakes.
I think I'm going to add some cake mixes to this week's grocery list.