Cockroach Cake 22-Mar-2009 This cake is of my own concoction. It is great for serving to unwanted guests, relatives wanting to borrow money, neighbors wanting to borrow tools, but never returns them, and the in-laws. And it works too! Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Check the oven, make sure there are no pans, pets or kids in there first. Cake Mix Recipe: 1 cup Raisins or chocolate chips - set off to one side - your choice 3 cups all purpose flour 2 cups sugar 3/4 cup butter or margarine - softened 4 eggs, should be fresh, so choke the chicken 3 1/2 teaspoons double acting baking powder - as apposed to single acting baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla or vanilla extract Into a large bowl, measure all the batter ingredients along with 1 1/4 cups water; with mixer at low speed, beat until well mixed, constantly scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. DO NOT use fingers, then we have to change the name of the cake to Cockroach-finger cake, that gets misleading because I have never met a cockroach with fingers. Also tends to change the color of the cake. Cake should be white, NOT pink, or red. Also, if you live in a high altitude area, you should stand on a chair. Low altitude areas, have a seat. Put your feet up. Now, beat at high speed for 4 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl, use the scraper again. After 4 minutes, turn off the beater, scrape well and throw it in the sink. Probably should unplug it first or we may not have anyone to finish the cake. Now, here is the fun part. There is always a fun part to almost everything I do. You remember that cup of raisins or chocolate chips that we left setting on the side? Well, my little cooking buddy, that is what we are going to use for the cockroaches. Now there are 3 reasons for this, number 1, it is really tough to catch those little buggers; number 2, they tend to pop when cooked which will cause your cake to have a bitter taste and number 3, in some places, the humane society and health departments frown on you using real cockroaches. I don't know why! Anyway, sprinkle in the cockroaches, and fold them into the batter, make sure they get distributed throughout the batter well. We don't want one or two people getting all the cockroaches. Okay dokey, now we need a 9 x 13 inch cake pan that has been buttered and floured. Pour the batter into that pan, smooth it out real pretty and even. And put it in the preheated oven, bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. If that should happen, then take the cake out of the oven and cool it on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Now, you will need a piece of cardboard bigger than the 9 x 13 inch pan. The cardboard from one of your suitcases will work fine, just cut it down to the proper size, and wrap it in aluminum foil. After 10 minutes, put the foil wrapped cardboard on a cookie sheet, place over the cake, cookie sheet up, and turn it over removing the cake from the pan and on to the foil covered cardboard. Probably should be using pot holders at this point, the pan is probably still hot. Smarts don't it? Set the cake off to one side to cool and after you perform first aid on that nasty burn we will make the frosting or icing or whatever you per fer to call it. FROSTING/ICING RECIPE Now this is a good frosting because it is kinda sticky and just in case you did use real cockroaches, it keeps them from escaping. The goodies: 1/2 cup Raisins or Chocolate Chips - set off to one side - again, your choice 2 Egg whites at room temperature a dash of salt 1 teaspoon of Vanilla or Vanilla extract 1 1/4 Cups light corn syrup In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat corn syrup to boiling; remove from heat. In a large bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat egg whites until foamy; add salt and continue beating until soft peaks form. Slowly pour in the hot syrup, continuing to beat for 6 to 8 minutes until frosting is fluffy and forms peaks when the beater is lifted. Beat in vanilla. Let cool to room temperature before frosting the cake. When the frosting has cooled to room temperature. Frost the cake using the entire bowl of frosting. Now, go get your cockroaches, the raisins or chocolate chips, and sprinkle the all over the top and sides of the cake. Now it is not a good idea to tip the cake on it's side to sprinkle the cockroaches on. Just kinda press them onto the sides. Great job for the kids. Maybe a good idea to have them wash their hands first. They may have been throwing puppy doo doo at the neighbors! Content received from: New Age Gathering, http://newagegathering.com