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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nFive minutes after the power came on after a three-day outage, I started baking an ice cream cake. Not the usual kind, with yummy layers of Mocha Almond Fudge and hot fudge sauce layered into graham cracker crust and left in the freezer, but my own invention–a variation of \u201cWhen life gives you lemons, make lemonade.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fans of Shrinkrapped may recall that our emergency preparations<\/a> for the\n\u201csafety\u201d power outages PG&E implemented as fire control mostly involved\ngrabbing a spoon and enjoying our dozen or so pints of premium Haagen Dazs. We\nlost our power a bit before 8:30 Saturday night, and since I failed to set my\nalarm to get up at 2:00 to dig in, my Sunday breakfast consisted of a\nfantastic, very thick Chocolate-Chocolate Chip and Cookies and Cream ice-cold\nmilkshake, rivaling the Creamy Dreamies we used to get at the Lagunitas market on\nour way back from a day at the beach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonathan, insufficiently committed to self-destructive acts\nfor the greater good, left most of the dirty work to me. But between the two of\nus, we managed to polish off close to three pints while the ice cream was still\nin this near-perfect state of soft serve. I nobly continued for another pint or\nso after the melted stuff resembled chilled creamy soup. But hey, if people get\nexcited about vichyssoise, what\u2019s the difference? Eventually, however, even I\nhad to admit that suffering indigestion and weight gain for this salvage\noperation might not be the best idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s mostly cream, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Jonathan asked as we\nforlornly surveyed our losses. \u201cCouldn\u2019t we use it to make cake when the power\ncomes back on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right away I thought of my recipes that used milk. The one that uses the most\u2014chocolate chip cake\u2014is also Jonathan\u2019s favorite. I figured the melted ice cream also contained a fair amount of sugar and butter, so before we could reset our clocks, I was measuring out ingredients. I wanted to get that sucker into the oven in case we lost power again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not making the frosting until we know how it\u2019s turned\nout,\u201d I told Jonathan. We had a test slice after dinner\u2014our first meal not\ncooked on our Coleman camp stove in three days. Yum! I wasted no time in making\nthe frosting to complete my masterpiece. Unfortunately, I had only one-quarter\nof the amount of confectioners\u2019 sugar required\u2014not because of power outages,\nbut because of a lapse in my usual hoarding of staple ingredients (i.e.,\nanything used for baking). So I made glaze instead of frosting, and the cake\nwas even better. The only improvement would be to serve it up with a big scoop\nof ice cream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which, unfortunately, we no longer have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the original recipe, with comments for how to improve it, with or without salvaged ice cream:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Real Chocolate Chip\nCake<\/strong>\u201412 servings (make in a 10-inch high-quality Bundt or tube pan; if poor\nquality, there\u2019ll be hell to pay in the form of a lot of yummy chocolate-laden\ncake top sticking to the pan, which you then have to pry loose and patch onto\nthe rest of the cake. Or eat from the pan, and call it a day.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 cups flour 1 tsp. vanilla<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3-1\/2 tsp. baking powder 1 cup butter or margarine, softened<\/p>\n\n\n\n `1 tsp. almond extract \u00be tsp. salt<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1-1\/3 cups milk 1-3\/4 cups sugar<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4 eggs 12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips–mini best <\/p>\n\n\n\n Preheat oven to 350. In small bowl, combine flour, baking\npowder, and salt; set aside. In large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Beat in\neggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and\nalmond extracts. Gradually add in flour mixture alternately with milk. Stir in\nchocolate chips. Pour into greased and floured 12-cup bundt or tube pan (approx.\n10-inch). Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes (I recommend checking at 50\u2014it\u2019s\ninvariably overbaked if it goes for a full hour). Remove from oven and cool in\npan 10-15 minutes. Then turn onto serving plate. If you have failed to use a\nhigh-quality pan and it doesn\u2019t come out in one beautiful piece, enjoy the\npatching or gorging job ahead of you. Cool completely, then top with chocolate\nfrosting or glaze (I recommend either doubling or at least increasing by 50%\nfor good coverage of the cake; or, if you use less sugar to keep it at glaze\nconsistency, you can attractively drizzle it over the cake assuming you don\u2019t\nneed to disguise broken cake from using a cheap pan).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chocolate Glaze: Combine \u00bd cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, \u00bc cup boiling water, \u00bd tsp. cinnamon, and 1 cup sifted confectioners\u2019 sugar. Blend until smooth. I find it easiest to do in a food processor or blender, but if you double it, be careful so it doesn\u2019t blow chocolate liquid all over your kitchen. (I doubled all the ingredients before I realized I had very little confectioners sugar, so only used about half cup of that–it made a fine glaze, though good to refrigerate it a little bit before topping cake so it isn’t so runny.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Waste-Not, Want-Not\nAdaptation<\/strong>: Instead of the milk, I used 2-1\/2 cups melted Haagen Dazs ice\ncream (I used Cookies and Cream, but any vanilla-based ice cream should do. You\u2019re\non your own if you favor minty or fruity flavors.) I used only one cup of\nsugar, and about 12 tbsp. of butter. I baked it for 60 minutes, and wish I had\ntaken it out at 50 or 55 minutes\u2014it will bake a bit longer as it cools in the\npan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, the best things to have during a power outage: a portable solar phone charger; a Coleman stove; a sense of perspective; and a profession that doesn\u2019t depend on electricity–in my case talk therapy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Five minutes after the power came on after a three-day outage, I started baking an ice cream cake. Not the usual kind, with yummy layers of Mocha Almond Fudge and hot fudge sauce layered into graham cracker crust and left … Continue reading