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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Thunder Cake!

We are having an absolutely HUGE thunderstorm right now, & I'm loving it!  We've been getting these storms quite frequently lately, & it always reminds me of a book that my Mom used to read to me when I was little called "Thunder Cake" by Patricia Polacco.  I remember loving this book!

I've never made Thunder Cake (at least not that I can recall!), but now I am thinking that maybe I should!  I found many reviews online for the recipe (who would have thought?!) & apparently it is quite good!  Chocolatey with a surprise ingredient that you'd never guess!  Sounds like a nice stormy activity for me!  And yummy too!  Mmm.

("Thunder Cake" summary from BarnesAndNoble.Com)  "When the air gets heavy and dark clouds drift low over the fields of Grandma's farm, her frightened granddaughter hides under the bed. But Grandma insists that this is Thunder Cake baking weather and the two are soon scrambling to gather the ingredients to make the cake--and get it into the oven before the storm arrives."

Ingredients
  • 1 cup shortening (I wouldn't try substituting anything else in this recipe)
  • 1 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 1/3 cup pureed tomatoes
  • 2 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1/2 cup dry cocoa
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • strawberries

Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream together one at a time: shortening, sugar, vanilla, water, tomatoes & eggs (blend yolks in. Beat whites until they are stiff, then fold in.)
  3. Sift together these ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt.
  4. Mix the dry mixture into the creamy mixture.
  5. Grease and flour two 8 1/2 inch pans.
  6. Divide batter into the two pans equally.
  7. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
  8. Frost with *homemade* chocolate butter cream frosting
  9. Decorate the top of your thunder cake with lots of strawberries (whole, sliced, mix of both, whatever you like & whatever looks best on your cake)
  10. Enjoy!


If any of you try this, let me know how it goes!
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 23, 2009 at 5:15 PM

    Yummy sounding dessert! (way too much wheat though:( I'm still loving the blog! You are way too talented... Don did good!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JessicaJuly 23, 2009 at 11:27 PM

    Eww tomatoes?! I am assuming that is the surprise ingredient... ha!

    Woo for storms. :) We had one the other day here! Are they much different from the ones in the States?

    ReplyDelete
  3. {Amanda}July 24, 2009 at 10:35 AM

    Aww, thanks! It's nothin! And I'M the one who did good ;)

    Jess, I've been reading on other recipe sites about Thunder Cake, & apparently you can't taste the tomatoes one bit & they keep the cake very moist! In Mexico, they use chillies with their chocolate, so who knows! I'm going to buy some strawberries soon & give this a try ;)

    The storms here are pretty much the same, except I've noticed that they happen ALL of a sudden! Makes my 45 minute walks with Layla exciting! haha

    Miss you all!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments! I love reading each & every one!