Tasty Tuesday- Truvy Cake with a Twist

A Disclaimer: You'll find the ingredients and directions throughout this post, but it's so easy that I'm going to forgo an actual recipe. 

Our oldest son, Josh is home for a week before heading back to Mt. Angel Seminary to start his first year of theology. Generally, when the kids are home, I try to cook/bake at least a couple of things they like. While we were talking yesterday- and we tend to talk a lot when he's home, especially as he has just completed a three week silent retreat- he mentioned how much he has realized he likes cake. 

With this in mind, I decided to bake a cake. I wanted to do something easy, but I wasn't sure what kind to do. I just happened to be on Instagram when I saw a post from Southern Living Magazine. It was a video of the movie Steel Magnolias where Dolly Parton's character, Truvy shares her recipe for a "Cuppa, Cuppa, Cuppa" cake.  It's a really- we're talking really really- simple recipe for a cake. Basically, she says "You take a cuppa flour, a cuppa sugar & a cuppa fruit cocktail (with its' juice) & mix it and bake until golden brown and bubbly".  

I didn't have any fruit cocktail, however, I had a 1/2 of a pint jar (yep, that's a cuppa) of homemade mincemeat in the fridge that I thought might fit the bill. There wasn't as much liquid in it as I thought it needed, so I scavenged around and found an almost empty bottle of orange lemonade we had drank at my youngest' going away dinner last week. I mixed those two up and voila, had a nice citrusy/raisin/date/nuts concoction that I thought would work.

I got out Grandma's mixing bowl and proceeded to follow Truvy's instructions. It looked pretty good as I poured it into a 9" square pan while my toaster/convection oven was heating to 350 degrees. I popped it in & set the timer for 30 minutes. After about 6 minutes, I realized something didn't feel right. Once I thought about it being a southern recipe, I knew what the problem was- I had just used regular flour without any added leavening. Truvy, being a true southern gal, would've used self-rising flour. I immediately pulled the cake out, added 1 teaspoon baking soda and a good dash of salt, mixed it up and popped it back into the oven. I figured even if it didn't turn out well, I could always use it for trifle or crumble. 

After 30 more minutes, I pulled out the cake which had a nice rise and golden color. We decided to have it after dinner with some vanilla ice cream- especially since, as Truvy says, "the ice cream cuts down on the sweetness". So the next time you or one of your family members gets a craving for cake, you don't need to look any farther than your pantry and fridge for a "Cuppa, Cuppa Cuppa" to make a delicious cake!