The first thing I decided to make was a seed cake. (This was mainly because I have successfully made cakes before, so it seemed doable.) The ingredients list looked pretty easy: eggs, butter, caraway seeds, sugar, a bit of milk, and self rising flour. I figured that just meant flour with baking soda mixed in. But it turned out I didn't have any flour, and I wasn't about to drive to a store,so I thought for a bit and I saw a box of lemon cookie mix from 2014. I looked on the ingredients and it looked like the mix was flour, sugar, baking soda, and a little lemon flavoring. I figured it was probably the right mix of flour and sugar, but since cookies are not as fluffy as cakes I added a teaspoon more of baking soda. So this is the recipe I used:
1 and a half sticks of butter
1 box of lemon cookie mix
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1/3 cup of caraway seeds
1/3 cup (or so) of milk
The website had this complicated method where you were supposed to beat the butter and fold in the eggs and flour or something, but I just put it all in a bowl and used the mixer. The batter tasted okay, so I greased the small square glass pan and poured it in. I cooked it for half an hour at 350F, but it was all jiggly in the middle so I put it in for another 7 minutes and that seems to have been just about right. It turns out that cookie mix is still not bad after 5 years in a sealed bag, which I wasn't really sure about. Walnuts and olive oil seem to go bad really fast, but apparently not lemon cookie mix.
It could have been moister though, so maybe next time I'll add some applesauce, or maybe pour some kind of sweet liquid over it.
