A few days ago, because of the snow, it took me 50 minutes to drive from my house to the highway, a distance that usually takes about 6 minutes. This kind of ride is incredibly frustrating, especially if you actually have to be somewhere, which I did. And even though I had given myself what I thought was ample extra time, I was late anyway.
To avoid total anxiety and angry thoughts during the drive I decided not to tune in to talk radio, which I sometimes do just to see what the crazies are saying. And I didn’t turn on my music CDs because I’ve heard them a little too often lately and keep forgetting to change them.
I started to play those mind games you play when you’re bored. Like “if you could only take 10 books/films/music, etc. to a desert island, which would you choose?” Or, “who was the most influential person of the 20th century?”
Only I wasn’t feeling that I could handle an intellectual challenge so my thoughts turned to this: if Americans are so in love with chocolate, with practically everyone I know saying they are “chocaholics” then how come Twinkies were always more popular than Devil Dogs?
Personally I preferred Devil Dogs as a kid, even though I have always been more a vanilla loving person than a chocolate one. But I also have to say that the last Devil Dog I bought was when I was about 9 and when I opened the package and ants started crawling out I threw it away and have not eaten once since.
I’m not sure why Devil Dogs were called that. As I recall they don’t look like Devil’s food cake, which is like chocolate cake, but redder in color for a variety of reasons (usually made with cocoa instead of melted chocolate, more baking soda, and so on). But it got me thinking about making a devil’s food cake. I don’t have a great recipe of my own, so I’m going to try a few from other people and see what turns up. If I wind up with a recipe I like maybe I’ll even make my own homemade Devil Dogs.
My first try will be this one from Smitten Kitchen: