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Pillsbury's Bake Off 21001

You know, I spend a lot of time thinking about food.  I mean, mostly it’s bad food, but no matter how bad it is, it is still food.

A lot of other people think about food, too. In fact, many people are obsessed with it.  I mean, look at “food porn” . What in God’s name is that? Well, mostly it’s when people talk about great photos of multi-layered gooey chocolate cakes or wet-looking roasted chickens in mixed company. Sometimes it is when a Food Network star takes a bite of something and they go into convulsions and their eyes roll up into the back of their head. Which I think is supposed to be a good thing. Or something. Apparently food porn is supposed to be really, really good.

So, if that is food porn, what is the stuff that I make?  “Food Scorn”?  What is the opposite of food porn?  Your whole family (including grandparents) around the supper table sawing away at a dried up husk of a pork roast? How about food like “Fried Peas & Lettuce.” Or “Cheese-Frankfurter Loaf?”

Those all sound pretty unappetizing. Very Un-Porn. (Wait, maybe that is the word for the MCMenu!)

So, what happens when I make something on the MCMenu such as, oh I don’t know, Peanutty-Chocolate Tunnel Cake??  Something that might actually be good?

Peanutty-Chocolate Tunnel Cake001

Huh. Maybe the universe will explode.

Wait for it…..

Wait…

Nah. Guess we are okay.

Anyway, this week’s recipe is once again from the Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbook from 1970. Because I LOVE those crazy Bake-Off books!

Peanutty-Chocolate Tunnel Cake001

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Who wants to shove their face into this bowl of sugar?

Me?

Yeah. That would be me.

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So, I realized AFTER I put this layer in that I probably shouldn’t have spread it around so much.  I think I kind of lost the tunnel effect and it just became a layer.

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The tunnel’s burst! Quick Lassie, get Pa!

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Mmmm…marbley.

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Eh. That’s still a pretty respectable tunnel.

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I don’t think this tasting was as fun for Tom.  It didn’t have the same element of “danger” as our normal meals.

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But it turns out the cake was good enough to lunge at it.

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“Mmmph.”

“What?”

“This is good cake.”

The Verdict: Yummy.  The vanilla part of the cake was very good, and tasted vaguely like a sugar cookie.  It had a great texture. The peanut butter layer was also good, it was fudgy and very moist.  The only complaint I had was that the vanilla part really didn’t go that well with the “tunnel”.  If I was going to make it again, I would make it all vanilla, and serve it with strawberries or mix the chocolate in with the whole cake and make it allllllllllll fudgy. But still a good cake.

And yes, it was good with ice cream. Just like Mrs. Lane promised.

Do you have a fun or horrible recipe for the Mid-Century Menu?  Send us your recipe and if we use it on the blog, you get a vintage cookbook!

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