Milestones

As our kids are growing up, we're always looking for those big moments... first steps, first words, first day of school. They become harder to define or see as they get older, but there was a major milestone reached today.

I've had Nana's famous Salad Dressing Cake for a little while now, I've wanted to try my hand at the delicious creation. I tried a couple of weeks ago, and no good. It was a complete flop, didn't turn out and the whole thing had to be tossed out. So disappointing. "This is why I don't bake," I told myself. Archer asked me today if I would bake the cake. I told him I had to be in the right kind of mood for it, and I wasn't in that mood today. He said, "I can make it." I couldn't really think of a reason why not, what's the worst that could happen? No worse than anything I'd done. So I said fine, and went to take a shower. He was on his own. At one point he called Grandma Shell for advice on whether he should grease the pan (he promptly forgot her advice and didn't do what she told him anyway).

I came back to the kitchen just in time to see him struggling with trying to hold the bowl while he poured the batter into the pan. I helped finish that up, then put it in the oven for him. Half an hour later...

Can you guess? Guess what happens when a nine year old boy with no baking experience simply follows the directions to make a chocolate cake? It turns out PERFECTLY. So good. So so good, I am SO proud!!!

Most of the cake is already gone, and I'm sure they'll finish it up for breakfast tomorrow morning. Perhaps I should be asking Archer for advice in the kitchen from now on?

Nana's Salad Dressing Cake

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup cold water
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup salad dressing (mayonnaise)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350
Mix all ingredients and pour into 9"x13" cake pan. Bake 25-30 minutes.

(Grandma Shell's advice was to spray the pan with cooking spray before pouring in the batter. Grandpa Craig's advice was to butter and flour the pan. Archer did neither, and used a non-stick baking pan.)

Why we love it

Easy, we always have the ingredients on hand, we love that we get to carry on Nana's tradition and share this one with everyone we love

 

Four Stars - what's with that last holdout? Doesn't he love cake? No? Strange...