(no subject)
cake pans. And yet, I have never made a cake. Actually, I haven't really used the kitchen for anything in ages. I used to bake pretty regularly, and then as the kitchen cluttered up and I didn't have the energy to clean it, I fell out of the habit. Shame I should get the urge to bake now, while it's still so hot outside, but so it goes.
At any rate, there was a life-changing event a few years ago. When my dad and step-mom had just been married, and she was still trying to hold onto the idea that she could have a friendly relationship with my brother and I, she made me a birthday cake. A Dr. Pepper cake.
And it was delicious.
It's a chocolate cake, really, but the use of Dr. Pepper had an amazing effect. It made the cake very delicious and moist, and it tasted much richer than it actually was. A normal cake this rich would make most people sick after a few bites, but not so the Dr. Pepper cake. But then my step-mom and I grew more and more distant, because she is exactly the sort of person I never want to be, and so vanished the memory of the Dr. Pepper cake.
Until recently.
The farmer's market that I pass on the way from the rail station to work has a thing for Dublin Dr. Pepper. Bottled in Dublin, Texas, in tiny old-school glass bottles, and made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. They sell six-packs and singles of the authentic Dublin drink, as well as a handful of unusual food items prepared with it, such as Dr. Pepper beef jerky. And, for $16.99, there is a Dr. Pepper cake mix, complete with a frosting mix and two glass bottles of soda.
I thought $16.99 was an awful lot to pay for a cake mix, so it finally occurred to me to google up a Dr. Pepper cake recipe, and I got a lot of responses. I know I can definitely rule out the ones involving bananas or oatmeal, or anything that isn't chocolate, but I still don't know which is the most like- or even better than- the amazing Dr. Pepper cake I had all those years ago.
So now, my friends, I have a mission. I'm gathering up a handful of recipes that seem reasonably likely, and every so often, I will try one out. I'm also kinda curious to see if they can be modified to make cupcakes or something. And maybe I'll end up trying the cake mix from the farmer's market anyway, if only to see how the soda with real sugar bakes compared to the usual stuff. If nothing else, this will get me some experience in the cake-baking world.