There's Chocolate Cake in the Fridge

When there's chocolate cake in the house, does it matter who bought it or that it isn't for you? No. It does not matter one little bit. If you bring cake into this house, you have brought it in at the risk of not having it there when you return. If the cake exists, it is quite safe to assume that, even if you put your name on it, someone else is going to eat that cake. It doesn't even matter if it is your birthday cake. It  will be eaten.

There is a woman living here. A woman of a certain age who adores chocolate more than just about anything else there is on the earth to adore. And, when you put that chocolate into cake form, well, it's doomed from the git-go. There is no such thing as a chocolate cake repellent nor is there such a thing as willpower when it comes to chocolate cake.  Especially when there's a man living in the same house who has, in his aging years, become worse than he already was in the areas of manipulation, meanness, forgetfulness and grossness. I kid you not.

And then there's the daughter who moved back home for 'just one year,' 15 months ago.

It's not that I mind one of the kids moving back into the house. But did it have to be one of the messiest ones? Was it not bad enough that I have Fred Sanford living here already?

My side yard looks like a salvage yard. I can understand some people who collect junk. I really can. Because they re-purpose the junk. The stuff that sits in my yard and the storage tent in the back yard does just that, sits. For years. Decades. I've gotten Fred confine to what was once the garage. It was turned into a playroom when the girls were growing up to give them more room for play and socializing. That area looks worse than the outside. I would take a picture but, some of it, is actually embarrassing. I don't even want to admit that I know someone who does some of the things Fred does. Dis. Gust. Ing. Fred has lost every single key to my car except one. He has lost his cell phones and four house keys. The list goes on but I believe y'all get the point.

And then there's the room where the daughter who moved back in resides. I had just gotten that room turned into a guest room. It was so pretty. See?

But no more.  Everything she owns is strewn all over the floor and walls and ceiling. The drawers (of the furniture I painted) are all hanging open and, from the places she puts her takeout food and drinks, let's just say I'll be repainting that furniture when...IF...she moves back out. Trash gets emptied once every couple of months and I have only been able to get in there to vacuum the rug and steam the floor twice since she's been here. She's supposed to keep it neat, tidy, clean in there in lieu of paying rent. Right.                                                                                                                                                                                                      

I'm not saying that I'm the neatest person in the world. But I do put things in their places. Nothing of mine is strewn about haphazardly. And nasty? No. I don't leave food out and I don't drop food on the floor while I'm eating. I wash up after myself (and everyone else, I guess that's my job) and my room is tidy. And I don't use empty water jugs for anything other than recycling and mixing up food for my flower garden.

It is quite difficult for someone who appreciates neat/tidy/clean to live with two adults who wouldn't recognize order and clean if they saw it (I know this because they see it every day when they walk through the front door.)

So, yeah. If someone brings chocolate cake in the house- for whatever reason, it's going to be eaten. And then the fork and plate are going to be washed and put away. And I dare anyone to try and stop me. On BOTH counts. 


Not that I'm going to always post recipes but this just sort of happened. Again. Ha!

My grandmother didn't have a chocolate cake that I recall. Though I do recall her pineapple and her coconut cakes, vividly. But, when I was a teenager, she started making this coco cola cake and it was scrumptious! Healthy? Nope. But scrumptious! :)

Coco Cola Cake

2 cups sugar                                                                                         1/2 cup buttermilk

2 cups plain flour                                                                                  1 tsp soda

1/2 cup butter                                                                                       2 eggs

1/2 cup oil                                                                                            1 tsp vanilla

3 T cocoa                                                                                             1/2 cup miniature marshmallows

Stir soda in buttermilk; set aside.  Sift sugar and flour.  Combine butter, oil, cocoa, and coco-cola

in a small sauce pan.  Bring to boil, pour over dry mixture; mix.  To mixture, add buttermilk and

soda, eggs, vanilla, and marshmallows, mix.  Pour into a well greased and floured 13x9x2 inch

pan (wax paper in the bottom of pan works).  Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Icing

1/2 cup butter                                                                                       1 box powdered sugar

3 T cocoa                                                                                             1 cup chopped nuts

6 T coco-cola                                                                                       1 tsp vanilla

Combine butter, cocoa, coco-cola in sauce pan.  Bring to a boil (longer for thicker icing). 

Remove from heat, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and nuts.  Mix well, spread over cake (top and

sides)

Have you ever noticed how venting is just as good as eating chocolate cake? Me neither.