Crazy cake

I've been making Martha's Crazy Cake for decades. I mean, literally, since I was in elementary school. I even got a blue ribbon for making this for a fair at my school. It's good stuff.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what the name of the book was that we got it from. I can tell you that the book was yellow, paperback, and not very thick (50 pages or less). If you can find it, please let me know and I will cite it properly. Apparently someone else got their baking inspiration from that cake too - you can find Jackie here.

So the story goes that "crazy cakes" were popular during the depression (or was it the war?) because they don't use eggs or butter in the batter (gasp! Don't worry. They make up for it in sugar.)

Here's the recipe.

Martha's Crazy Cake
1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
2 - 2 1/2 Tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
5 Tbsp salad oil (I use vegetable)
2 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 c. cold water

Turn the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Put flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, and baking soda in the pan (I use an 8" by 8" square pan, but as long as the size is similar go for it). Stir with fork until well mixed. Use the fork to make 3 holes, or wells, in the flour mixture. Pour the oil into one hole. Pour the vinegar into the second hole (actually I save this for third because it fizzes!). Pour the vanilla into the third hole. Pour the water on top. Mix together with the fork, mix well. Bake for 20-25 minutes.*

* The time of baking is kind of tricky. I almost always end up with a soggy cake center. My new "test" is to jiggle the cake, and if the center doesn't wiggle back, it's done.

I made this today with the 5-year old girl I have started to babysit. She liked making it, and dh and I enjoyed eating it! Yay for kid-friendly recipes! (well, minus the sugar. She left by the time it kicked in ;) lol).

I'm baaaaack!

We're back.

We really enjoyed our condo, rented through the Armed Forces Vacation Club. It was clean and nice, and good sized for the 8 people we had there. It was a really good deal for a week, and they have rentals all over the US and the world (CONUS and OCONUS for all of you military people - lol). We think it might be helpful for our next PCS, as a condo could have a kitchen and space... Everyone that we talked to through the AFVC was really helpful. I'd recommend them!

On the down-side, we really hadn't done our homework as to which condo to choose from the AFVC's site. We chose one that was in the middle of Sevierville, a town my sister described as "redneck ghetto-licious". It wasn't THAT bad... but let's just say that the view out of our window was Wal-Mart.

We had a great time with my sisters and my nieces, and later in the week, my parents. All of them drove down from the great north. More updates and thoughts to come later :)

This is for you, sisters. Maybe they'll come out with it on Guitar Hero sometime soon. We could only hope.

Day 5

Seestors.

Dh and I (he hates it when I make him do cheesy poses like this)

Water. Lots of water.

View from (near the top) of the Chimney Tops trail.
Yeah, I'm a little afraid of heights.

Ferns. Cold, snow-covered ferns.

This is how I thought I would have to come down the mountain.

More rivers

Katie went to the top (shown here)

DH was able to coax me to about here (note: not the top).

We went to the Black Bear Jamboree (a cheesy dinner show).
Calli loved it and could not divert her attention, even to eat her dinner.
I still have the songs stuck in my head. It was cheesy, but very entertaining.

Day 4

DH and I decided to give my sisters a bit of a break and send them to the resort's "Pamper Me" day (which turned out to be people trying to get them to sell Arbonne... but whatever). Dh and I took the nieces to "craft time". I think one of them was pretty excited about it.

See, she's painting the bird house!


Unfortunately, this one got more paint on her face than on her bird house.


Awww, sisters...


Later, we all went out for ice cream (a typical outing for our family). This is the "Princess Smile."


Niece + sister


Dh and I as Ben and Jerry


Niece #2 and younger sister


Both nieces. Be thankful we didn't explore all possible permutations.



Who would have thought the VeggieTales version of "You Are My Sunshine" could ever be so endearing?

(Oh, and excuse us, dh and I put the girls in their seats. I didn't notice until later one of the girls' shoulder straps is off! Sorry!! We're not trying to pull a Britney Spears on you! I guess we have a bit to learn before we have kids of our own!)

Day 3

Hiking the Cucumber Gap Trail Loop

Tia Kt and Mari

Hiking next to the Little River

Ten minutes later, Mari's asleep!

Happy hikers

Jenny and Calli

Showing Mari moss on a tree

Cool picture of Mari and me

Nice people who helped us across the stream (pictured below)
They waited for us there, just so they could help us - nice people!

The stream

Tia Kt swinging from a vine...

All done hiking.

View from our condo (in the non-walmart direction)

Sunset in the walmart direction. (Good cropping on my part.)

Day 2

Falling deaths are bad.

My sister and one of her adorable daughters

The family at Laurel Falls

Me and my sweetie

DH carrying one of our nieces

We did it! We made it back without any falling deaths!

Day 1 - Smoky Mountain Vacation

I've got the cutest nieces :)