burning down the house

Yesterday, I made blueberry cake. It was something of a trip, because I low-carbed my mom's old recipe. We had made a huge double batch of the real thing over the weekend when everyone was here, and it disappered in no time flat. Seriously, this huge cake didn't even last a day! It was so weird to see stuff I baked get eaten so fast. My kids are just not that into baked goods, whether high or low carb. I often end up tossing stuff in the trash, or wrapping it up and freezing it right away so that doesn't happen.

The 'standard' blueberry cake recipe is supposedly for a 8x8 inch pan, and that's the one I converted. Usually we double it and bake it in a 9x13 pan, and man is that cake huge. In fact, I don't think I've ever made a 'standard' 8x8 cake. This led to the somewhat humorous, certainly not fatal, but definitely annoying situation in which the cake rose in the oven and cooked over.

Great globs of blueberry cake batter all over the racks and the bottom of the stove. As soon as I smelled something burning -- fairly soon into the cooking process -- I ran to the oven and looked inside. I slid a cookie sheet on the rack under the cake to catch the rest of the drips, and just prayed it wouldn't get too bad.

It was bad -- the house was filled with a hazy smoke, and I cranked up the vent fan, the ceiling fans, and I opened the windows and doors at both ends to try and move the smoke out. Eventually it did clear, and eventually the cake was cooked, and it really does taste good, even if it looks really weird. Once the cake came out of the oven, I made a mental note to myself to go back and clean out the drips when it was cool enough.

Of course, I completely forgot. Dinner was cooked on the stovetop, so I didn't give another thought to all the batter that was burnt onto the bottom of the oven. That is, I didn't until I set the oven to preheat for tonight's roast chicken. I thought the smoke and haze were bad yesterday! Today, it was bad enough to set off the fire alarm, and of course ADT called to make sure the house wasn't burning down. Thanks for not embarrassing me about being a bad cook, ADT Guy!

Anyway, I scraped as much lava off the bottom of the oven as I could, and repeated the routine with the windows and fans, etc, and the smoke eventually cleared. I even think that the smell of the chicken roasting eventually displaced the smell of the smoke, but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I'm not sorry one bit I made that cake. I just wish I'd known beforehand how huge it was going to end up!

Here's the standard recipe:
Blueberry Cake
for an 8x8 pan, double for a 9x13 pan

2/3 C shortening
1 1/2 C sugar
2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 C milk
2 eggs

1 1/2 C blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line your pan with foil and spray it with a nonstick spray.

Blend first 3 ingredients until the mixture resembles crumbs. Reserve 3/4 cup for crumb topping. Add remaining ingredients except blueberries, and stir until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle blueberries evenly over the batter, and then sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the top.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. The 9x13 pan (double recipe) takes quite a bit longer, start testing at 50 minutes, but it may go to an hour. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

I'll post a link to the low carb version when it comes out.