Mmmm . . . moist, chocolatey, but wait!?! What are those stringy things? Why, my wacky cake seems to have sprouted seaweed!
When I was a kid, my mother often made something called "wacky cake" for us to eat when we got home from school. It could be made in one pan from things always on hand (it required no eggs) and she could whip it up in less than an hour, including baking time. We ate it a lot.
I live near Puget Sound, a veritable seaweed garden, and I finally decided to get wild and crazy and teach a seaweed harvesting class a couple of weeks ago. I decided as part of the class to serve seaweed, but the most challenging part was coming up with palatable ways to do this. My graduate degree is in marine science and I specialize in seaweeds. I teach others about it, I know about its ecology, its biology, and can identify many species by sight. But eat it? In 13 years, the only seaweed I have really eaten is the nori my sushi comes wrapped in, or the stuff floating in my miso soup.
I started experimenting with some seaweed cookbooks I had, and I soon decided that the authors must have been high when they made up these recipes. Dulse fish sauce anyone? I asked my husband to taste it before I put it on his fried cod. He replied, "if you made it, I'll eat it." I love this man. However, I knew this particular concoction probably was not going to fly, so I insisted that he taste it. I don't remember ever seeing that look of disgust on his face before. Back to the drawing board.
So, instead of all-seaweed recipes that would make people run for the hills, I opted to add seaweeds as an "enhancement" to various recipes I cook regularly, since this seemed to be the best way to get the nutritional boost without gagging. I scored with fucus "popcorn", frittata with arame, tatziki with hijiki, and nori green sauce (recipes to come), but needed dessert. I thought of wacky cake, that old standby. I grabbed some hijiki (bought, not collected) and added it to the cake batter. It was downright tasty and and easy way to ramp up the cake's nutritional value.
WACKY SEAWEED CAKE
Grease a 9" x 12" rectangular pan and put the oven on 350 degrees.
Sift together in a bowl:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar (I use 1-1.5 cups)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
Add to the bowl:
2 cups water
1 cup oil (or less oil and another wet ingredient to equal 1 cup)
2 tablespoons vinegar
1/3-1/2 cup hijiki, not rehydrated
Mix it all up, pour it into the pan and bake about 30-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
