My cousin’s birthday was yesterday. I made her a cake from scratch. Why? Well, I’m one of those freaks who prefers to eat food that I can identify or at least pronounce as opposed to a cake with items like these:
Thiamine Mononitrate,Propylene Glycol Mono- and Diesters Of Fats, Mono and Diglycerides, Dextrose, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate. Modified Food Starch, Wheat Starch, Polyglycerol Esters Of Fatty Acids, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Xanthan Gum, Maltodextrin.
I have no clue what most of those things are, but suffice to say, the bulk of said components are probably chemicals. And…ahem, those are only SOME of the ingredients in the Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix, which my grandmother always used as the basis of her infamous Coca-Cola cake. However, my cake contained:
Whole wheat flour, cake flour, brown rice flour, eggs, sugar, Splenda (a by-product of sugar, so it is natural even if it’s processed), organic sugar, brown sugar, cocoa, vanilla extract, buttermilk, 1/2 a cup of Coca-Cola, butter, baking soda, a dash of salt, baking powder, and the frosting was comprised of 4 oz. of unsweetened chocolate (100% Cacao, no less, so this fine dessert has tons of fiber) confectioner’s sugar, butter, a little more Coke, a slurp of milk and a dash of vanilla.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVED Nana’s Coca-Cola cake, which is why I began making them a few years ago. And there’s NOTHING wrong with making a cake from a cardboard box. But to me, it makes it all the more special if you make a cake or an entree from all natural – or mostly natural ingredients.
Knowing this cake had all that fiber and such helps ease my guilt for consuming carb-laden foods because all the fiber helps to dilute the negative effects of SUGAR on one’s biology. And though excessive sugar is bad for anyone – a piece of cake now and then won’t kill you. Additionally, REAL sugar, and real butter and such aren’t nearly as bad for your liver and other organs as all the concocted ingredients in cake mixes.
But again, no judgement intended for anyone who makes brownies/cakes/cookies, etc., from a box/can. I simply TRY to craft/whip up homemade, organic yummies.
Aside from that, cooking from scratch is a dying art, and if a few of us don’t endeavor to cook and bake from organic foods – some day, maybe, no one will know HOW to blend flour, sugar, et. al into CAKE, and, maybe, all food sources might end up akin to MREs. You know, that food stuff that soldier eat in the trenches? Yeah, some day we could be eating a gooey mess plopped out of a plastic pouch that’s allegedly roast beef and mashed potatoes while longing for home-cooked food, but we’ve never actually baked/broiled cow meat and cut up/boiled and mashed up spuds, so we wouldn’t even know where to start. Sad thought, isn’t it?
And last but not least, sadly, according to several books/studies I’ve read lately, sugar and whatever crap is infiltrating prepared foods seem to be the prevalent suspect contributing to the rising rates of various cancers. In particular, Jorge Cruise’s 100 Diet book wags a rather angry index finger at sugar and processed foods in regard to the underlying cause of several types of cancer.
Plus, three years ago, when I decided to attempt to cook/bake/fry/saute, etc., as many organic meals as possible, I started taking all those old recipes and eliminated prepared foods, and revised them/creating as many organic recipes as possible. Despite the extra work, I lost 11 pounds by eating organic and fresh foods for almost every meal for two weeks in June of 2010. And I had a steak and a baked potato one night with organic chocolate ice cream for dessert and spaghetti another night. Not homemade noodles, but you get the idea.
Sooooooooooooooooooo, that said, after spending all that time making this much-blabbed about birthday cake, it was really delicious…and oh, so pretty…
However, though she LOVED the cake, this is the way it looked upon arrival…
And she sent a text with the photo that said: Cake demolished, but it TASTES GREAT! 
I overnighted it to her since I wasn’t able to make the 300-mile trip for her birthday bash this past weekend, but the U.S. Mail tried their best to decimate it. No surprise there… I’ve sent cookies and brownies through the mail previously, but this was the first time entrusting a cake to the postal service. I double-boxed it, but that wasn’t enough, obviously. I asked Nana how she’d wrapped up the Coca-Cola cake she sent me about 15 years ago for my birthday, but she couldn’t remember. Hers arrived in PRISTINE condition. However, after my cousin called to thank me for the gift and to tell me the cake was delicious – even though it was rather desecrated, it dawned on me that THREE little words could’ve saved my beloved Coca-Cola and Chocolate Confection:
THIS END UP…
Yeah, I wrote FRAGILE all over the box in red, but I didn’t think about the negative impact of gravity, which my husband reminded me of – sigh…looks like it toppled over and laid upside down for AWHILE. Oh, well, I had included a little tub of extra frosting (the little thingy with the red lid in the photo) in case some of it got stuck to the lid (or all as the case may be). But she decided to scoop up the lumps of cake, slather them with frosting, then douse them with whipped cream. Apparently, t’was most delectable that way…:)
And it is, after all, the THOUGHT that counts…:)
PEACE OUT from the hapless kitchen of TENACIOUS BITCH and company…
© Tenacious Bitch 2013
