Cake
2 eggs
Fresh and delicious; purchased at the farmer’s market. The man who sold them asked me if I know the difference between brown eggs and white ones. His point was that there really isn’t. I told him brown ones are rooster eggs, to which he replied, “If roosters laid eggs, they’d be around a lot longer.”
2 cups flour
The recipe just uses white flour; I substitute 1/2 cup with whole wheat flour – It gives the cake a little more body and keeps my health-oriented conscience from bugging me too much.
2 cups sugar
I cut that a little, again more for conscience sake than anything. If you’re going to eat cake, make one you enjoy!
1/2 cup oil
Vegetable oil works fine, although I think others might work as well.
1/2 teaspoon salt
Not much to say about this one, right?
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
I just discovered vanilla paste: Yummmmmmm!
2 teaspoons baking soda
They’re just trying to get a rise out of us.
1/2 cup walnuts — chopped
Or hazelnuts, cashews, pecans. I believe in tweeking recipes to suit my own taste.
20 ounces huckleberries
Picked by my cousin and given to me; fun to share with friends and neighbors as we gather for another time of visiting.
Okay, the original recipe called for 20 ounces of unsweetened pineapple, juice and all. I think you could use the same amount of canned apricots, although you would have to puree or crush them…other fruits would also work.
Icing
8 ounces cream cheese — softened
1/2 cup butter — softened
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
Okay, I don’t make mine that sweet. More like 3/4 cups powdered sugar. Cake needs to be good, but let’s not rot our teeth!
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon juice.
I just sort of pour a little in, so I’m guessing.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cake:
Mix all cake ingredients until well blended. Pour into prepared 13×9
inch pan. Bake for 50 minutes.
(I baked mine for 45 minutes and that was plenty. You know how ovens are: Never quite the same.)
Icing:
Combine icing ingredients until smooth. Frost cake while still warm.
(Not too hot or icing will melt)
Then have some people you enjoy in. This time, it was all my neighbors. To quote Safeway’s old marketing slogan, “since we’re neighbors, let’s be friends.”
Enjoy!
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NOTES : Optional: can add 1 cup coconut