Rickety Uncle

Original Recipe

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup margarine [I used butter]

1/4 teaspoon soda [i.e. baking soda]

Cream margarine; add brown sugar. Mix in remainder to crumbly mixture and press into pan. Bake until brown.

See modifications below for more details.

Did it Work?

Yes. This is very simple, but fairly rich press-in pan cookie. Basically, you end up with a concentrated version of crumble topping. The simplicity of the recipe would probably make it a great one to do with kids, especially since there is no risk of over-mixing.

Modifications

Important details: Use an ungreased 8x8 pan. Try and smooth the top as much as possible or it will crumble later. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, watching carefully as it can burn easily. Cut while still warm, or you will have a rock in a pan.

Pictures

One piece, about to be eaten.

Carrot Bread

Original Recipe

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup Wesson oil

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. soda

1 cup grated carrots (firmly packed)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix and bake in loaf pan at 350 55-60 minutes.

Did it work?

Sort of. This results in a very dense, sweet vegetable bread, pretty close to the consistency of a banana or zucchini bread. Since this was my first attempt at one of the recipes out of Isllah's recipe box, I did a "trial run" of this before the memorial service. That test loaf did have a bit of a metallic aftertaste, so Kyna and I decided to cut the baking powder in half for the next loaf.

I enjoyed the results, even if it didn't generate as many comments as the rhubarb cake. I will definitely be making this again.

Modification

Less Baking powder. For the second loaf, I cut the baking power to 1/2 teaspoon. This pretty much removed the metallic aftertaste. Since the bread is so dense already, this didn't have much impact on it's rise.

Firmly packed means Firmly packed I'm pretty sure I didn't have enough carrot in the first loaf. Shred enough carrot to fill a measuring cup to the 1 cup mark, compress, add more shredded carrot, and repeat until you can't compress below 1 cup. You don't need to squeeze out carrot juice, but that's just about the only mark of overdoing "firmly packed".

Rhubarb Cake

Original Recipe

2 cups rhubarb

2 1/4 cup sugar, divided

1/2 cup shortening [I used butter]

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

11/2 tsp. cinnamon, divided

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk*

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

Mix together the rhubarb and 1/2 cup sugar and set aside.

Cream together 1 1/2 cup sugar and the shortening. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and beat well.

Shift together the flour, baking soda, salt and 1 tsp. of the cinnamon. Add to the shortening mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Add vanilla and the rhubarb and mix thoroughly. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Mix together 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and sprinkle on top of batter. Put in oven and bake for 35 minutes or until done.

* Sour milk can be made by bringing 1 cup milk up to room temperature and mixing in 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. Wait approximately 10 minutes, until the milk has thickened to use. If you are in a hurry, you can zap the milk in the microwave for 30 seconds to get it up to room temperature.

Did it Work?

Yes, it was tasty, and received several compliments. It was also incredibly easy to put together and can feed a large number of people easily. This is more of a snack cake than something fancy and would be right at home at a potluck or picnic. The only issue was that in my mind it was far too sweet. This is a rhubarb cake for those who don’t really like rhubarb, since the sugar covered up most of the sourness of the fruit. Unlike Sean,I like rhubarb, so I made some modifications. What I ended up with was cake that also garnered a lot of compliments, but was less toothache-inducing and let the rhubarb shine through.

Modifications

1) Less sugar: 1/4 cup on the rhubarb, 1 cup in the batter, and 2 tablespoons mixed with the cinnamon to sprinkle on top. This means you have 1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar total for the recipe.

2) Changed Flour Type: I replaced 1 cup all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour. Since there was cinnamon in the batter, it did not effect the color, or as far as I can tell the texture. I am pretty sure you could get away with replacing all of the flour with whole wheat pastry flour.

Pictures

Cake version 2.0, in the pan.

Slice o'cake. Excuse the blur, it was early, I was using an iPhone and most importantly....I wanted cake.