Tickle Me Cake

[srhcb]

Tickle Me Cake

My grandson Zach, age two, is a bit young to understand the concept of menu planning. However, he isn't shy about offering, ne demanding, input into selecting food for his immediate gratification. Lately he's taken up grabbing me by the hand, leading me into the kitchen, and saying, "Cook Poppa."

Last night, having preparation for dinner well in hand, I asked what he thought I should cook. "Cake!" Zach replied. (He's only recently learned to distinguish various baked sweets from each other. They all used to fall into his catchall category of "cookie".)

I didn't have a lot of extra time before dinner, so I decided to throw together a simple pan cake previously known as Mock Chocolate Cake:

• 
  

For Cake:

• 3 c AP Flour
  
• 2 c Sugar
  
• 1/2 c Carob Powder (Cocoa would work as well, but more on that later)
  
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
  
• 2 c Strong Black Coffee (room temp)
  
• 2/3 c Vegetable Oil
  
• 2 T Vinegar
  
• 2 tsp Vanilla
  

For Frosting:

• 1 Stick Butter
  
• 1 c Brown Sugar
  
• 1/4 c Milk
  
• 1 tsp Vanilla
  
• 2 c Powdered Sugar
  

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

In a 9x13 Baking Pan combine all dry ingredients.

Add all wet ingredients and mix well with flat wisk or fork.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

You can eat it unadorned or sprinkle it with powdered sugar. I like to use this Caramel Frosting:

Melt Butter in heavy medium-sized Pan over Med Heat. Stir in Brown Sugar and bring to a boil for 2 minutes.

Add Milk, return to boil 1 for 1 minute. Allow mixture to cool to room temp and add Vanilla and Powdered Sugar.

Stir until smooth and apply thick coat atop cooled Cake

In honor of Elmo, the Muppet character we'd been playing with on the computer, Zach and I renamed the cake "Tickle Me Cake". Besides being distinctive, this name provides me with the opportunity to ask, whenever the subject of the cake comes up, (which is quite often), "What kind of cake is it?", to which Zach has to reply, "Tickle me!". Then he gets tickled and laughs uproariously. It works every time.

The reason Tickle Me Cake uses Carob rather than Cocoa is because a significant portion of everything Zach eats ends up on the floor and is subsequently consumed by our three dogs. Chocolate isn't healthy for dogs, but they can eat carob. (In fact, the reason I used carob in this recipe the first time was because I had some left over from making Dog Brownies.)

Zach always eats the frosting off his cake first and then asks for more. When told he must finish what he has on his plate first he either stuffs the entire piece into his mouth at once, or sneaks some to his fore-mentioned four-footed cohorts.

Ah, a handful of Tickle Me Cake, a Sippi Cup of chocolate milk, and a Shrek dvd. That's Bein' Small and Livin' Large!

Keywords: Dessert, Easy

( RG1557 )