Deserts! Yes! Deserts. Plural. You must have a couple of deserts in the freezer. So, lets make a chocolate roll. It is very simple. And ice cream. Easy. Have you ever heard of the Wacky Cake, sometimes known as Crazy Cake? I read about it in the newspaper a few months ago, but a friend of mine told me that it was her mother who first concocted it and called it by that name. You take a pan and dump into it:
3 cups of regular flour
1/2 cup of cocoa
2 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt

Make three indentations in this mess and into one pour 3/4 of a cup of vegetable oil, into the other, 2 tablespoons red-wine-vinegar and into the third, 2 cups of water. Now, take a fork and make a few "zig-zags" in the pan, shove it into the oven, bake for 1/2 hour at 350 degrees and you are as Wacky as that the cake is! Really! It really works; a delicious chocolaty cake DOES come out!

Although, I must admit, that I have never done it that way. Being a bit of a 'stickler', I mix the dry ingredients separately and the liquid ones separately. Then I mix them together. AND, it's a big cake; so you eat it and eat it some more and by the time you are half way through it you are ready to chuck it out. This is where your roll comes in; you dump the cake into your processor and crumb it. Of course you can use a simple store bought sponge, or any plain cake. It will always work.

But what about that Wacky Cake from the Wacky Cook? You MUST try it! Really! Melt 200 grams of good chocolate, with some strong coffee; yes, instant coffee will do. Mix well while it is melting and then ad this melted chocolate to those crumbs in the processor (grind, grind). If you want, add nuts. Grate some orange zest. Now, add some rum, cognac, Grand Marnier. Come on, a bit more. Let it run again. Dump all of it onto some baking paper and with both hands roll it into a nice log about 2 inches wide and as long as it goes. Wrap well in foil and label it, as you really do not want to defrost a cheese roll when you want a chocolate one. Now store in the freezer.

If you have no time to 'slave' over a fancy dessert, this will do as a base for ice cream, hot chocolate sauce, fruit ‚ anything. You slice off 1/2 an inch of the role, place on a plate and let it defrost a bit; pile a huge glob of ice cream on it. Decorate with fresh red fruit, or mash some fruit and pour around. Put a spring of mint on top of the ice cream and admire! I will be delicious!

You can also make cocoa balls from this mess; roll the mix in crushed nuts or good cocoa. Serve them with coffee. Or cut from the roll sticks and serve with just the ice cream. The idea is that it is THERE, and you do not have to go into a panic to think of a desert. EASY.

The ice cream I make is a 'parve' (non dairy) version of the beautiful Nigella. It is her recipe. It is delicious, comes out every time and keeps for a long time in the freezer (if your husband does not know that it is there).
2 oranges
2 lemons
300 gr. powdered sugar
2 'parve' (non dairy) cream
Grand Marnier

Did you know that if you do not have powdered sugar, you dump regular sugar into a blender and hay! Yes, a blender! No other twirling tool will do! Turns it into powdered sugar in front of your very eyes! You didn¼t know, did you? Now, grate the zest off the oranges and lemons. Put into a mixing bowl. ONLY the zest please! Juice the 2 oranges and only 1 1/2 lemons, right on top of the zest (you can put a sieve into the bowl to catch all the nasty stuff). Add the sugar and start the mixer or blender on slow, increasing to medium; if you have no cover on your mixer, put a 'shmate' on it or wrap some saran over it! If you do not, your kitchen will be covered in yellow gook, and you will have a very small amount of ice cream left.

Ok, now add the åparve¼ cream, increase mixer to 'high' and beat for 5 minutes. Add the Grand Marnier; about two generous tablespoons. Beat another minute and stop, increase mixer to 'high' and beat for 5 minutes. Pour into a dish which can be covered securely, store in the freezer, and go and mix a drink for yourself!

You deserve it!