Don't Try This at Home

August and I made a gingerbread cake yesterday, ostesibly from The New American Cooking, and I think I need to call it my miracle cake. This is what happens when you don't gather all your ingredients ahead of time. I'm not going to record the actual recipe because I'm sure the results aren't reproducable.

First I had August measure out the flour. He's just over 1 year old, so really I had him hold the cup while I poured flour in, then he dumped it into the bowl, or rather in the general vicinity of the bowl. So (1) the flour wasn't measured accurately. Then I discovered I had no ground ginger for my GINGERbread cake, so I (2) subbed pumpkin pie spice for all the spices called for. Added the other dry ingredients, which August then mixed together with his hands and then spread all over the front of his shirt.

Then the wet ingredients. I found I only had 1/2 cup white sugar, so I (3) substituted brown for the rest. Only had 1/3 cup molasses when the recipe called for 1 cup, so (4) that's all I used. Mixed everything together, put it in a pan and then into the oven. I turned on the oven light and August and I watched, fully expecting the whole thing to explode or cave into a goey mess. I thought we were going to get something when bubbles started forming at the top. I thought at least the cake would have a metallic taste because there wasn't enough molasses to react with the baking soda.

I felt sure I must've made the baking gods mad, breaking all the rules about using the right ratios and following baking recipes exactly. But they must have a thing for little kids covered in flour, because the cake was pretty good, if a little bland. Definitely edible, and not the kitchen disaster I was expecting. Nice warm topped with vanilla ice cream and sprinkled with freshly grated nutmeg.