Cake question

[woolymonkey]

Spidermonkey's birthday is coming up, so I need a weird and wonderful cake/pie recipe. Can anyone help? This is for a normal-sized family cake. I'll do a big chocolate guitar shaped thing later when his friends come round, but I have a recipe for that already. What I need is an interesting yet yummy cake to eat on the day--emphasis on yummy rather than novelty presentation. Spider is very adventurous with food, so suggest away. It doesn't have to look like a birthday cake. US Thanksgiving foods welcome. (Why yes, I have been reading penknife's poll.)

Spider likes:
chocolate
fruit
moist, gooey, sticky cake,
carrot cake
hot chocolate
chilli
cinnamon
syrup
strangeness
weird evil-looking food
really fancy-looking food
bananas
chocolate
things he hasn't tried before
(last time he asked for a Nigella Lawson recipe where you boil up whole clementines for hours to make a gooey syrupy cake thing--it was good)


He's not so keen on
coffee
walnuts
(not a problem in subtle quantities, but don't feature as main ingredients, please)

I can cope with:
hunting down strange ingredients
small amounts of alcohol in recipe
US, UK or metric units

Things I cannot cope with:
piped icing/frosting
complicated finishing touches just before serving
ingredients with US brand names and no description to help me substitute

Comments

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Here's one that's really fruity, very moist, and could hardly be easier.

Granny Cake

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
No. 2 can crushed pineapple
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, soda, and salt into a bowl, stir in the eggs and undrained pineapple. Pour into a 9x13" pan, sprinkle with pecans and brown sugar, and bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. While it is baking, bring the milk, butter, 1/2 cup sugar, and the vanilla to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. When the cake is done, remove from oven and pour the milk mixture all over it. Cool.

Edited repeatedly as I'm still apparently half asleep.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Now that is MY kind of cake! If I can get my act together, I'll be making this one for family on the day (because I want to eat it) and desperance-tamaranth's aztec beetroot cake for the party.