An Extra Special Celebration

Yay for Mary!  She lost her first tooth this morning!  Ever since we read One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey, she has been eager for this moment to come.  I offered to pull the loose tooth out with pliers.  She said no.  I offered to do the string tied to a doorknob trick.  She said no to that, too.  She did what every reasonable and sensible five-year old would do.  She just waited for the tooth to be ready to come out.  (Where did she come from, really?)    So, it actually was pretty uneventful.  No pain.  No blood.  No swallowed tooth.

We are not doing the whole tooth fairy bit, but we do want to celebrate the first lost tooth for each of our children.  I asked Mary how we ought to celebrate and she asked for Xtra-Special Celebration Cake.  What a MOBLEY!  I am glad that she understands at such an early age the integral link between chocolate and celebrations!

The recipe comes from the Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook, which was my husband's when he was a boy.  I ordered one for a birthday gift for a friend a few year's ago, but it doesn't appear that this book is in print any longer.  Wow, we have a collector's item!  The book has a recipe for every letter of the alphabet.  The recipes in this book are actually quite tasty and my kids really enjoy making them.

Xtra-Special Celebration Cake
3 c flour
2 c sugar
1/2 c cocoa
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2/3 c oil
2 t vinegar
1 t vanilla
2 c cold water

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare pans (either two round or one 9x13).
Mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
Mix oil, vinegar and vanilla.  Stir oil mixture and water into flour mixture real hard until well blended.  Immediately pour batter into pans.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.  Let cool 10 minutes.
Remove from pans.  Let cake cool completely.  Fill, frost and decorate cake as desired.