A Cake to make in these Times

I started cooking before the age of six, due in part to my strong sense of survival and stubborn personality. One of my first memories is cooking Pastina with butter. I remember my mother had made Pasta e Fagiole “pasta and beans” for supper, a dish that to this day I will not eat. I really dislike eating beans especially cannellini beans. My father was from the “old school” the one that says you have to eat what was in your dish or you will be sent to bed without supper.

Even as a young child, I was just a wee bit headstrong. (Who would have ever guessed?) and I refused to eat my supper. My father was more headstrong than me, so off I went to bed without my supper. At that time and until the age of seven, my family lived downstairs from my grandparents, my great grandmother, and a couple of aunts and uncles in a wonderful extended family setting. After I was sent to bed without my supper, my parents went upstairs to visit my relatives. I decided I was hungry, remembered watching my mother make me Pastina, and thought I would try it.

So I found a pan and cooked myself my own dish of Pastina. Actually, I made Pastina several days in a row, because I kept being served the bowl of Pasta e Fagiole. Let me tell you, warmed over Pasta E Fagiole does not get better after a few days. That was my first foray into the field of cooking.

The first time I made a cake I was about 13 years old. It was a Wacky Cake (chocolate of course). This is a great cake for a kid to make because it is mixed all in one dish.

Of course, there is a story behind this adventure too. My parents and my Aunt Lottie and Uncle John Riccitelli had gone to the movies to see “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and I was all alone in the house. While they were gone, I decided to try my hand at making this cake. Even then I was a night person and started baking before they returned from the movies. The cake had just come out of the oven, and I couldn’t wait to try it. My mother for some reason believed that cake should not be eaten warm and since it was now close to my bedtime, I was told to wait.

So here was this wonderful cake, sitting there, with the aroma of chocolate in the air, and I was not allowed to even have a little piece. Mom said I had to wait because, “it will still be here in the morning.”

Now, I have an older brother, who had come home with his friend Billy, and the two of them ate the whole cake. I can tell you I was one disappointed girl! To this day, whenever I see Billy I remind him of the cake episode. So, here is my recipe for Wacky Cake. You can add chopped nuts, raisins, chocolate, butterscotch, or any other kind of candy bits to the batter for variety. I never frost the cake, but I do dust it with confectioners’ sugar.

Wacky Cake

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

6 tablespoons cocoa

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

⅔ cup oil

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 cups water

Nuts, raisins or chips are optional

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Sift all dry ingredients into a 13 x 9
baking pan.

Then make three wells. Into the first well put 1 teaspoon vanilla; in the second well add ⅔ cup oil; and in the last well add 2 tablespoons white vinegar. Pour 2 cups of water over the ingredients and mix. Bake the cake in a 350° oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes. Dust the top with confectionery sugar. Nuts, raisins, or chips can be added if desired.