This afternoon I attended the Gateway Council Holiday Tea with my friend Marsha Arnold. It is the first of a series of holiday events and receptions that combine people who share a passion for the arts and for reading. There are many who form the backbone of the local reading council.... Carla, Marie, Paula, and others who have spent their entire lives not only raising families, but also fulfilling their passion for teaching, either in the classroom or by running our community and school libraries . They match children with good books, which means not only knowing children well, but also knowing the vast variety of books available.
I stay connected to our local reading council not only because we share a similar interest, but because it connects me with people who constantly give themselves to creating the next generation. These people are the ones who create the people who will run our future.
So what about Whacky Cake? The refreshments at the Holiday Tea were made from recipes in a book called Taste of Literacy...a collection of recipes by authors around the state. Marie made my Whacky Cake. Barbara Winslow would be proud. She is the writer of DANCE ON A SEALSKIN, a book I illustrated, that recaptures some of our dancing experiences in Alaska. Barbara always did things the easiest way, and this cake is all made in the baking pan. Only one dish to wash when you are done.....and it's chocolate!
So this afternoon I got to combine one more thing with my love for reading and the arts....food and memories of living in Alaska. When it was Christmas several (sometimes 15) teaching families gathered together in one school on the Yukon or Kuskokwim Rivers in Alaska for Christmas. We did not have time to go to our homes in the lower 48 and join our 'real' families for Christmas, so we formed our own. We flew in, snowmachined in, and divided up the cooking. We layed out palettes for the children to sleep on in one of the classsrooms and the mom's slept with them on the floors. My kids remember bouncing from lap to lap with all of our teaching friends, going to the village activities, and playing in the snow.
Christmastime is often a time for nostalgia and for remembering old friends who are still friends, and this afternoon I was reminded that part of Christmas in Alaska was Whacky Cake..... there was always Whacky Cake.
So, if your are out there Barb, we are having Whacky (Crazy) Cake for Christmas here this year.
We will dump the following ingredients into a 13x9 baking pan and stir till all the lumps are gone (sounds like what life does to all of us)
2 cups suger
3 cups flour
1t salt
1/2 c cocoa...as in Hersheys Dark
2t soda
2t vinegar
2t vanilla
2/3 c salad oil
2 c water
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 min
I laughed when I read the last line...good cake for company if you are out of eggs. We were always out of eggs in the village!
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You should comment on your own post, but here is a letter I received from Barb Winslow, who made the Whacky Cake. She is not on Blogger so I am cutting and pasting in THE REST OF THE STORY as Paul Harvey used to say when radio was our only entertainment in the Alaskan Bush. Here is what Barb wrote:
ReplyDelete"Hey, do you know where I got that recipe for Wacky cake? Skip and I were
taking the Alaska train up to Fairbanks and stopping every so often to get
off ,camp and fish. I got tired of fish. But we walked along the tracks
until we came to a homestead. There we met a nice young couple and they gave
us tea and cake while we visited with them. It was Wacky cake. She gave me
the recipe and I remember looking at Mt. McKinley while we sat on their
front steps and visited and ate. A treasure of a memory and I think of her
every time I eat Wacky cake(which I don't get to do anymore). You have
inspired me and I might make it for Christmas. Thanks for the memory."
Barb is a wonderful writer and friend. She and Skip, my husband, Bob, and I have been friends for Yikes! 40 years in 2010.
In Barb's memory and Judy's I am making real pizza for the holidays, like we did in the bush. Our goal was to not miss anything we could have had to eat in the lower 48.
Ahah, I am a blogger now. Many of the times we shared in Alaska are memories of unfathomable depths. WE were so lucky to have those times and those friends.
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