Meet the Doke

This weekend wasn't great. The hard drive on my computer suddenly died. And even though I had backed it up about 3 months ago, I feel this strange sense of loss about it. As far as I can tell, all I really lost was our Christmas photos (backup all of your photos to the cloud right now!), but it's just unsettling when you are reminded how reliant you are on machines.

Ok, so rather than bringing you a Smart and Good recipe today, I'm bringing you a Dumb and Ridiculous recipe, which is a little bit how I feel about grieving my hard drive.

Two years ago I started the tradition of attempting a crazy dessert-inside-a-dessert on Superbowl Sunday. It began with Pake (pie inside a cake) and then came Pookie (pie inside a cookie - from the Cakespy cookbook), so this year I attempted Doke...donuts inside a cake.

But before I take you through the Doke, I want to say that I also made these Mathematically Perfect Nachos and while they were awesome, I'm pretty sure you could achieve the same thing in less than half the time with Tostitos Scoops.

Now back to dessert. In previous years, I had a recipe. This year, I just dreamt the creation up with the help of some of my Facebook friends.

It started with donuts and a cake mix. Sure, I considered making both from scratch, but artful cooking isn't really the point of this annual tradition.

(Btw, I'm sure you could make this whole thing gluten and dairy free, but...there's probably a better thing for you to make if that's what you want to do.)

I made the cake batter as directed on the box and then I poured it into my angel food cake pan because I had a stroke of genius: Make the donut-cake IN THE SHAPE OF A DONUT!

I poured the batter in the pan with the intention of standing the donuts up on their sides, but there wasn't enough batter to cover them up that way...

So I shoved the donuts in as so (I fit 5 in there). We debated face up or face down and decided on face down thinking we'd flip the cake out of the pan at the end.

 I had to do some shaking, but the batter eventually covered all the donuts.

I baked it for 45 minutes, as the box said, but the batter above the donuts stayed wet, while the spaces between the donuts started getting crispy...I baked it for another 10 minutes or so before deciding it would be better to risk part of it being soft rather than burning it beyond recognition. It wasn't so pretty.

It got even less pretty when I tipped it out of the pan. The poor cake couldn't really set with all those giant donuts in its way, so it was a bit crumbly. But look! Doke!

I made my own buttercream frosting before we started. Had I not made it ahead of time, I would have skipped it because clearly there was no good way to ice this thing. However, I was still maintaining the hope of making it look like a giant donut, so I decided to try piping it on (despite the fact that it was still too warm).

Ta-da! It's Doke! Melty, lopsided, falling apart doke, but doke nonetheless.

How did it taste? Pretty good, actually. The donuts didn't even appear to notice they had been baked for another 55 minutes and the cake and frosting were yummy. I think a different pan and possibly mini donuts rather than the full-size model could produce a more cohesive (literally) dish.

So happy Superbowl and sugar rush to you! Tomorrow we get back on the moderation wagon.