Thunder Cake

Last Friday Lucy and I were looking at a book of nursery rhymes that had Pattycake, Pattycake, Baker's Man in it. We've probably read that book a million times, but for some reason Lucy was really intrigued by the pattycake that day. She wanted to know what a pattycake was, what does it taste like, where do you get it, is there really a Baker Man that cooks it for you, etc, etc. She grilled me about pattycakes for so long that I finally had to promise to take her to get one later that day. For your information, the best pattycakes can be had at Baker's de Normandie, or at least, that's where we ended up getting ours. We determined that a pattycake was any kind of yummy dessert that you buy at a bakery. Lucy chose a cupcake with a turkey on top and I chose a chocolate mint brownie for my pattycake. Sadly, I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures of our decadent pattycakes.

On Friday night we read a book called Thunder Cake that Lucy had randomly selected from the library shelves last week. Thunder Cake tells the story of a little girl who is afraid of thunder. (Incidentally, Lucy was not afraid of thunder until reading this book. Now she says that she doesn't want to ever "see" thunder, it is too scary.) During a thunder storm, the little girl and her Grandmother make a thunder cake and while they are making and eating the cake the little girl learns not to be afraid of thunder anymore. (Somehow, Lucy missed that part.)

There is a recipe for thunder cake in the back of the book. After reading this book, Lucy promptly forgot all about pattycakes and decided that we absolutely had to make a thunder cake as soon as we possibly could. There were a few things we needed from the store in order to make the cake, but we finally got our act together and made the cake at Grandma Hoggan's house on Sunday.

I was a little nervous about following the recipe, mostly because it called for puréed tomatoes as the secret ingredient, but you know, it turned out pretty good. We told my Dad it was his birthday thunder cake. We did not tell him that it had tomatoes in it, at least not until he had already eaten it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thunder Cake
recipe from Patricia Polacco's book of the same name

Cream together, one at a time:

1 cup shortening
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs, separated
(Blend yolks in. Beat whites until they are stiff, then fold in.)
1 cup cold water
1/3 cup pureed tomatoes

Sift together:

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup dry cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Mix dry mixture into creamy mixture. Bake in two greased and floured 8 1/2-inch round pans at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes. Frost with chocolate butter frosting and top with strawberries.