As a kid I used to listen to my grandparents and great-grandparents tell me stories of what life was like during the Great Depression. What I always found interesting is the necessity breeds creativity part of their tales. Especially in the realm of food preparation.
The times that we live in are no where near as hard, especially in regards to scarcity, as they were when my grandparents were kids. Even with the shortages and lack of stock things going on in our economic realm, there's still a bounty of food available.
That said, with inflation, the bird flu, staffing issues, war, uncertainty, etc being somewhat the norm these days, I was reminded of some of the recipes and comestibles that my elders used to make.
That and I really wanted a dang piece of cake today. And it had to be dairy-free.
LIGHT BULB!
The juxtaposition of my thinking about the Depression and new dietary limitation thoughts crashed together like left and right wing protesters at a library board meeting.
After a bit of interwebs perusal, flipping through my great Gram's recipe stash, and some exited scribbling, I had a recipe before me that resembled a cake I remember being talked about. I think it might have been called a crazy cake and believe me, I felt pretty crazy by that point.
That feeling grew by the time I got the batter into the pan.
Because really, the cake recipe below is a bit on the crazy side, at least if you compare it to standard cake recipes. It has no milk. It has no eggs. It has no animal-derived products of any kind.
Also, it's so delightfully easy to whip up. I made it all in one bowl. Swoon...
To start with, I greased a 9X9 baking dish, preheated my oven, and got out a large glass mixing bowl. Okay, it would have been a stainless steel mixing bowl, but as many parents before me have experienced, when Mom is down sick, no dishes get done. Strange phenomena that.
Anyway, I got out my trusty mesh strainer, balanced it on the edge of the bowl, and tossed all the dry ingredients into it for a good sift. I do this because I really don't like getting a bite of baking soda. It's worth the extra step.
Then I got to the fun part. I took a measuring cup and made three little depressions. I think recipes tend to refer to them as wells. I refer to them as fun because I am a bit of an eternal infant and love to play with my food. Yay!
Into one well I put some canola oil. Into another I put my extracts. And in the final one I put some white vinegar. The inner elementary science fair kiddo in me squeed a bit as the baking soda in the dry ingrients gave a bit of a hiss as the vinegar hit the well. VOLCANO!
Okay, not really, but it was still cool.
After filling the wells, I poured water all over them, and I got out my whisk and whipped the batter into submission. This took about thirty seconds. It was a short match.
After WWE-Kitchen Edition, I scraped the batter into the prepared dish and popped it into the oven for a grand total of 28 minutes. I started with 25 minutes on the timer, but there was a bit of jiggle in the center after that much baking time. I wish I could just bake out the jiggle in my center. Sigh.
While the cake was cooling I whipped up some frosting. Non-dairy butter, powdered sugar, almond extract, and almond milk made for a delightful, fluffy cake topping.
I then ate a respectable sized square. You know, a chunk big enough to guarantee that my mid section will probably retain its jigglyness for some time.
And I am not sad about that.
That said, I will probably be back soon with a version of this recipe that uses monkfruit or maple syrup as the sweetener and some free of gluten flour, because I might want cake when I am on a healthy cycle too😁
The Vanilla Almond Quick Cake
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white vinegar
5 TBSP Canola Oil (I'm sure any vegetable oil would work)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup of waterPreheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Grease an 9X9" baking pan
Measure and add dry ingredients to a mixing bowl. If not sifting them together, make sure you whisk them well before adding wet ingredients.
Make three depressions(wells) in the dry ingredients.
In one well add the extracts, in the next add the canola oil, and in the last well add the vinegar.
Pour the water over the top of everything.
Whisk until batter is well-combined.
Pour into prepared pan and bake in pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes.
Cool and frost with your favorite frosting before eating!
