Apple Turnover Murder

WACKY CAKE

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, rack in the middle position.

First set of ingredients:

1 and ½ cups all-purpose flour (don’t sift-just scoop it up and level it off)

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 heaping Tablespoons cocoa powder (about a quarter cup)

Choose a pan. Suzy’s cousin used a round cake pan about 2 inches high, her mother used a rectangular cake pan 8 inches by 12 inches, and her aunt used a square 9-inch by 9-inch cake pan that was two inches high. (Suzy says that opinions vary, but she doesn’t think the cake cares.)

Hannah’s Note: Suzy didn’t say to spray the pan with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, but I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I did.

Put the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder into a bowl. Suzy says to sift all the ingredients together, but Michelle and I just stirred them with a fork until everything was well blended.

Make three “pukas” (Suzy says those are holes or wells) in the mixed dry ingredients, just as if you were making a well in your scoop of mashed potatoes to hold the gravy.

Gather the second set of ingredients.

Second set of ingredients:

6 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon vinegar (we used raspberry vinegar-it was good!)

1 cup cold water

Put the vegetable oil in the first puka, the vanilla extract in the second puka, and the vinegar in the third puka.

Pour the cup of cold water all over the top of the cake.

Mix everything up with a fork or a wooden spoon. Continue to beat (or fork) until the batter is smooth.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes.

Serve warm.

Suzy’s cousin says you shouldn’t remove the cake from the pan-just put the pan on the table and serve it that way. Suzy’s aunt says you should serve it with sweetened whipped cream or ice cream. Suzy’s mother frosts it in the pan. She sifts 2 cups of powdered sugar with a dash of salt in a bowl, and stirs in a teaspoon of vanilla extract and enough cream to bring it the right consistency.

Hannah’s Note: This is a great dessert for a novice baker to make!