Vinegar Sweetness

 

Knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Because I generally enjoy cooking, if I want something, I often just make it myself.

          I was out running errands the other day and the realization hit me that I really needed a chocolate cupcake. Before I arrived home, the last possible place to get said cupcake was a small bakery in the center of our small town.

          Parenthetically, the owner is the granddaughter of a man I taught with or near for my entire teaching career. He was such a kind man, and I got to know his wife as well so even though granddaughter doesn’t know me from Adam, I have a warm place in my heart for her little shop.

          Problem was, it was the afternoon and the town academy kids must have already laid waste to their stock because all that was left was some bread and a few boring muffins. So, no cupcakes for me.

          At home the craving still hadn’t left me. Maybe I could make a small cake. It would be tricky. I had no baking chocolate, just baking cocoa. Out came the cookbooks, but I couldn’t find the 8X8 cake in my head.

To the internet I went, and there it was – a small cake that I could make with what I had. And it was a cake I’d forgotten about for years.

I remember it as having been created during the Depression, when ingredients were limited. Magically, you stir it up in the pan, so no bowls or mixers (except for the icing). You don’t even grease the pan. And it calls for no eggs or milk. Even more weirdly, you use vinegar.

Against all logic, it was incredibly moist. And My Guy has proclaimed that I need never make any other kind of chocolate cake.