Fred decided to chronicle my cake-baking efforts last night. I don’t think the pictures were quite as abstract as he would like, but here are the results.
The middle photo includes an Okratini–the East Tennessee version of the dirty martini. Just substitute pickled okra juice and a piece of pickled okra for your olives. Tast-ee!
Sadly, however, the cake was a disaster. The recipe was Cook’s Illustrated’s Classic Devil’s Food Cake, on page 476 of The Best Recipe. What were these people THINKING?
The beigish things you see in the photo are not nuts or Rice Krispies or anything edible, but LUMPS of congealed flour. And I actually followed the recipe this time (except for substituting finely ground coffee for instant, but having done that before, I don’t think that was the problem.) The problem, I think, was that the batter was the consistency of CHOCOLATE MILK.
Still, I ate about a quarter of one layer before throwing it out. Testing, you know.
The Newlyfeds 
Jami, I love the picture of you and Fred. About the batter: sometimes a cup of flour isn’t a cup of flour, I’ve discovered. Maybe the weather required you to adjust the amount of flour to make the batter thicker?Paul
Paul, I wondered about that. The recipe called for unsifted flour, which also made me suspicious. It’s possible I should have followed my instincts and sifted first.It’s also possible I mis-measured the liquid. The recipe called for 1 cup of boiling water poured over cocoa. Looking back on it, it seemed like more than 1 cup was in the bowl. I was using my big measuring cup and may have filled it to 2 cups instead of 1. I’m going to test that theory tonight.
One more thing: Thanks for the compliment on the picture!