Chocolate cake for company

I have a friend who used to be the head of food services for our largest regional hospital. Every Boxing Day she used to have a party and every year everyone would wait for her famous, famous rum bundt cake. We always asked for the recipe but she would never divulge her secrets. She was a professional after all so we figured that was probably fair.

When she got older she finally told me, her next door neighbour, why she wouldn't give anyone her recipe. You see all she did was use two pound cake mixes, throw in handful of walnuts and substitute rum for the water. She was embarrassed to have anyone know that she, with graduate degrees in nutrition, would do that.

Me, as a mother of three kids, well I was thrilled. You see I once belonged to a dinner club where the organizer, a real overachiever, assigned us recipes to make. One Saturday I had to perform a 20 layer Hungarian Dobosh cake with a caramelized sugar top, it was supposed to look like a drum. Well by about the 14th layer I was ready to start hitting something I can tell you that.

I quit that dinner club. Not my crowd. Not my crowd at all.

My point is that some of the best, and most appreciated recipes are the easiest. My truly wonderful mother-in-law uses this recipe for chocolate cake and everyone loves it. I got this passed on to me, with no apologies, and now I am passing it on to you. I made it for family dinner tonight and as usual everyone had two servings.

Chocolate cake:

Don't worry about what order you do any of this. Just put it into a bowl and mix it up. The Kenwood mixmaster I got at a yard sale for $5.00 does a great  job. Pre-heat your oven to 375 and butter and flour a cake pan:

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

2 level tablespoons baking soda

6 level tablespoons of cocoa

1 cup of cold water

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 cup of Miracle whip (yes I know this is the shocking part)

1 egg

Mix it up and bake for 45 minutes

I had an excellent sewing weekend. Remade that Butterick T shirt with the gathered front into a nightgown and a new top with methods and addition ease that I learned about first time up, and made two pairs of pull-on pants from the Jalie PJ pattern and they are excellent, excellent and make fantastic non-baggy elastic waist pants. Have booked my daughter for a photo shoot Tuesday, really pleased with myself. Work tomorrow and in the meantime tonight, a few dishes to do.