Some months ago my husband decided he wanted chocolate cake, but had trouble finding a recipe that called for cocoa rather than chocolate. (He eventually found one. That was the night of the icing fire.) After that I asked my mom for her Wacky Cake recipe, which I finally made last night (not exactly the one linked to, but close enough). Turned out really well – moist and chocolaty. We skipped the icing, though, as I was short on time.
I think it turned out so well because of the secret ingredient. It calls for 2 cups of sugar, and after I measured about 1/3 cup of sugar I discovered that was all we had. We had some light brown sugar, but it was dried into a solid block. Tried stabbing it with a knife and barely made a dent. Luckily my faithful assistant came up with the bright idea of grating it. Even more luckily, he grated it while I ran off and did some work upstairs. Sounded like he was scrubbing pots.
Today, spurred by an article in the paper about farmer’s markets that still have local produce this time of year, we ventured to the Worthington farmer’s market, which is really hard to find. We didn’t see any of the greens that are supposedly available, perhaps because we got there too late, but did get some squash and shallots and sausage.