Spin Cycle: Comfort Food

We should make a little cookbook out of all the contributions for this week's Spin Cycle. And you should go check them out! I predict that you will end up starving by the end of your review.

My contribution is this cake I make. It gets lots of compliments and it takes all of 5 minutes to throw together.

This is what you need:

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (I use my good stuff for this cake. The kind that practically costs as much per ounce as gold.)
2 TBS lemon juice (you can use fresh if you want to continue the fancy thing. I squeeze it out of a plastic lemon)
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 (16oz) can Fruit Cocktail in heavy syrup (go with Dole. Trust me on this. Also, don't drain it, you'll need to put in the whole thing, syrup and all. Thanks Jan for reminding me about this!)

For the topping:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I like dark brown sugar)
1/2 cup flaked coconut

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all dry cake ingredients in a large bowl, then add all wet ingredients. Mix well. Pour into a 13 x 9 glass baking dish and sprinkle with topping ingredients. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. It's done when the brown sugar caramelizes, the coconut crisps but isn't burnt, and you can't take the wait any longer.

I also thought I should include a recipe from my daughter. She told it to me just yesterday:

How to make Vegetable Dumplings
By Elizabeth, age 4

First you take some icing and you roll it out.

Then you fold it up.

Then you put it in the oven to bake it.

And when it comes out again, you eat it.

And that’s how you make vegetable dumplings.


Funny that when I googled "Vegetable Dumpling Recipe" today, my results didn't quite match that.

We're going to try to make them tomorrow night. Wish us luck! If they turn out well I'll tell you about them. And I'll probably tell you about them anyway if they don't!