Have your cake...

I have been wondering how I'll ever use up all the flour and sugar in the pantry without gorging on baked goods, so when I was invited to a party to celebrate my dance teacher's wedding and asked to bring something to eat I thought, "Here's my chance! I'll make a cake!" Of course, I didn't think at that moment of the challenge of making a cake without much in the way of equipment: the nine-inch cake pans and most of the bowls and measuring cups and spoons are in Vienna already. But never mind, I was determined to meet the challenge. In my zeal to embrace that challenge I forgot that I actually do still have my Kitchen Aid mixer, so somehow I wound up using a hand mixer--with mismatched beaters.

But I did find exactly the three ounces--and not an ounce more--of baking chocolate in the cupboard. Also two unopened boxes of semi-sweet baking chocolate and a container of Hershey's cocoa, all of which I was able to return to the store. And I was able to use of most of one of the two half-used boxes of cake flour in the pantry, plus most of an open bag of dark brown sugar, and an entire bag of powdered sugar. A few well-timed holiday parties and I may be able to use up all or most of the remaining bags of flour and sugar.

Lacking those nine-inch pans, I baked the cake in a single fourteen-inch pan. I didn't feel up to trying to split that single layer (and the cake had bit of a San Andreas fault running across the bottom), so I just frosted the top and sides, creating, in effect, a giant cupcake.

Get to the party--much oohing and aahing over the cake--only to discover that my dance teacher and her new wife are Vegans. Oh well!