Dinosaur Delights

     I attempted to make a cake from scratch.  Here's a little advice from my experience: leave your self plenty of time for a "dry run" before making something that you will serve to company.  Or you can be like me and have 7-10 different recipes for carob cake that you juggle to see which one has ingredients you may have heard of while you are trying to make a cake for a party tomorrow. In this case I went with the recipe for "Wacky Cake" since it looked less complicated than the 3 page long number that called for arrowroot and several other ingredients that were non-existent in my pantry.  I mixed the ingredients and it looked like brown soup, but I tried to keep positive and hope it would miraculously rise during the baking process.
     I doubled the recipe and cut it to look like a dinosaur.  I used carob chips for the eyes and toenails. There was a bit of cake leftover so we called that the swamp that the dinosaur swam in. You can catch a glimpse of the swamp in the picture.   The cake turned out super moist.  It didn't rise much although it did solidify while baking.  It took on more of a brownie quality than cake consistency. The frosting was amazing with a little dab of food coloring for the dinosaur green.  Next time, I think I will experiment more before debuting a new recipe, but I will keep the frosting on file.

"Wacky Cake" (Poor Man's Cake)

1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup honey
3 tbsp cocoa or carob powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp vinegar
1 cup water
1 egg (optional)

Stir and mix with electric mixer and bake at 350 degrees in ungreased 9 x 13 baking pan , 25 to 30 minutes.


 Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
 from www.madhavasagave.com

1/2 cup unsalted butter
6 tbl Agave Nectar
1 cup nonfat dry milk
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
4 tbl whole milk
pinch of sea salt

Cream the butter with an electric mixer until light in color. Slowly add the agave nectar and beat until fluffy, about one to two minutes. Gradually add the dry milk and beat again.  Add the salt, turn the mixer to high speed, and beat about two minutes, or until very fluffy.  Makes 2 cups. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.