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What-Ya-Got Cake Recipe

READ THROUGH ENTIRE RECIPE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO MAKE!!

Basic recipe:
2 c. flour
½ c. sugar (white, brown, Sucanat/Rapadura, or equivalent sugar substitute)
2 t. baking soda
1 c. liquid (water, milk, or juice)
2 eggs or ½ c. egg substitute

and your choice of:
½ cup fruit (dried, fresh diced, or canned drained)
½ cup nuts, chopped
½ t. flavoring
2 t. spice of your choice
½ cup flavored chips
½ cup flaked coconut
1 cup grated zucchini or applesauce
2-3 mashed bananas
All or any combination of the above

Hey—it’s YOUR cake. What ya’ got to put in it?

Assembly: Combine all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Determine which wet ingred-ients you’ll be using, then add your choice in the quantities listed, stirring carefully to avoid breaking up any frozen fruit. Egg, mashed fruit, juice, milk, water (if using powdered milk), and flavorings can be mixed into a blender if a smooth consistency is desired. Pour into a greased or oil-sprayed 13x9 pan or greased muffin tins. You may have excess batter for muffins. Bake @350 for 12-15 mins. for muffins, or 30-35 mins. for cake. Always test for doneness.

For a larger pan (11x15), double your entire recipe—basic and additional parts. Bake @350 for 35-40 mins. Test for doneness.

Convenience note: Baggies of the basic ingredients can be made up ahead of time. I like to keep the flour, baking soda, and sugar combined in bags ready to go in my fridge. The rest comes from what I have on hand in cupboards and pantry. I empty one baggie of mix into a large bowl. Then, all I have to do is add water or milk, egg, and some sort of fruit, nuts, chocolate, spices, and flavorings to the mix, stir, and I’m ready to bake.

For a fat substitute, use bananas, applesauce, gelatin, or zucchini instead of butter, margarine, or oil, and omit this when using juices—it makes for a too-moist batter. If using frozen orange juice, you’ll notice the batter becoming foamy. This is normal—the citrus is reacting with the baking soda.

Pancakes: For yummy out-of-the-ordinary pancakes, double the amount of liquid in the original recipe—for the basic recipe, use 2 cups milk instead of 1. For variations that include juice for the liquid, simply add 1 can water along with juice. Pour ¼ c. batter into a heated and oil-sprayed skillet and cook as usual.

For added nutrition and a “healing” quality: add 1 c. each of nutritional yeast and oat and wheat bran to the flour canister—these ingredients act as immune system boosters, and make everything baked a “healing” cake without having to think about and measure more ingredients with each baking session.

Addition suggestions:
3 mashed bananas, ½ c. choc. chips, 1/3 c. cocoa powder (for banana/choc. chip)

3 mashed bananas, ½ c. choc. chips, 1 10-oz. jar cherries, chopped (in food processor) with juice (banana/choc. chip/cherry)

1 12-oz. can frozen OJ and 2T. cinnamon (for orange/cinnamon)

1 12-oz. can of ANY frozen juice (undiluted and thawed)—a liquid substitute

1 small box any flavor gelatin or 1 envelope unflavored gelatin—a fat substitute (juice and gelatin combined will add big flavor punch)

3 red delicious apples, peeled, cored, and chopped + 1 c. applesauce (use brown sugar)

1 c. applesauce, ½ c. dried or frozen fruit with ½ c. chopped nuts (for fruit/nut cake)

½ c. chopped nuts, 2T. cinnamon, and 2T. allspice + 1 c. applesauce (for spice cake)

½ c. chocolate chips, ½ c. chopped walnuts, 1 t. mint flavoring, 1 t. green food coloring (for mint chocolate chip)

Go for broke: ½ c. any dried fruit, ½ c. any chopped nut, and 2T. any sweet spice

Flavoring suggestions: (pick one)
2 t. vanilla or orange
¼ t. maple (it’s very strong)
¼ t. butter flavoring (it’s also strong)
1 t. almond
1 t. rum flavoring

Posted by Cute at 11:08 PM

Labels: food preparation and use