In Praise of Jiffy Cake
A slice of warm cake with icing melting into its sugary pores is the confectionary equivalent of a sonic boom. Leave behind your sad little candy bar. Break the barrier of pre-fab, cellophane-wrapped imposters, and fly into the bliss of home-baked heaven. Sift the flour. Crack the eggs. Melt the butter. You won’t be sorry. Time is the first ingredient.
But what if you don’t have time? What if you need cake, and you need it now? And, what if a whole cake is too much, and that beautiful, deluxe, triple-layer delight ends up, heaven help us all, in the garbage? What is a cake-starved, time-deficient person to do? Enter Jiffy Cake.
Now before you Julia-Child foodies start your objections, remember that Julia herself shamelessly loved Wonder Bread. And, yes, I’ve seen you all scarf a Ding Dong or two. So listen up. This is crucial. It could save your life in a dreary, cake-less desert.
Haul yourself to the grocery store and buy a Jiffy Cake mix. No, buy two or three or four because this little miracle box is going to change your life. I’ll warn you now, it’s hard to find. It’s a small nondescript 3 x 5 1/2 inch box. Often on the bottom or very top shelf, it is obscured by bigger and flashier cake mixes that promise all kinds of extra goodies inside like chocolate chunks, chocolate syrup, and chocolate whatever else you can think of. Here’s what you’ll see on the Jiffy Cake box. “Quality and Value since 1930. “Jiffy” Golden Yellow cake mix. Add egg and water.” That’s it. Add egg and water. No frills here.
For a long time this is exactly what I did. Twenty minutes later, out came an 8 x 8 pan of moist, yellow cake ready for my old-fashioned confectioner’s sugar, cocoa powder, butter and cream chocolate icing. (Blanchie Dale’s Easy Icing in the recipe section). Ice it hot, and swoon into a sweet-induced coma. Then, one day I had a thought. What if I wanted chocolate cake with vanilla icing? So, I added 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the cake mix, left the cocoa powder out of the icing, and, voila, chocolate cake with white icing. Yum.
This was just the beginning. My obsession with tweaking Jiffy Cake became, well, just that—an obsession. Piña Colada Cake. Fig cake. Banana Blueberry Cake. Limited only by my imagination, my repertoire grew. This love affair has been going on for years now. In the recipe section you will find just a few of the variations I have come up with. I invite you to try them. And, if you like, share with a friend. Then, if you dare, make up your own variation. I promise; it will be gone in a jif.
*Disclaimer—I am in no way associated with or compensated by the makers of Jiffy Cake. I am simply a loyal and adoring fan.