6. small dried wood ear mushrooms.

Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cake pans.Line the bottoms with parchment paper, then butter the paper..

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, egg yolks, molasses and vanilla until smooth.In a small bowl, mix the buttermilk with 1/3 cup of hot water..In a large bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.

Add the brown sugar and mix very well.Add the 6 tablespoons of butter and the oil and beat until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

While beating constantly, slowly drizzle in the egg mixture until incorporated, then beat in the buttermilk mixture, scraping down the side and bottom of the bowl as necessary.. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake for about 20 minutes, until the cakes feel bouncy and a tester inserted in the centers comes out clean.

Transfer the cakes to a rack and let cool for 10 minutes.Did you ever get stabbed by a pencil in elementary school and you were left with a teeny, tiny pencil tattoo on your skin that you can still see today?

That's what waiting tables is like.When the pencil punctured your skin, it hurt.

You knew you weren't going to die from it, but it wasn't exactly pleasant.The first time I found myself up to my eyeballs in weeds at a restaurant, it wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't going to kill me.