Who was more thrilled than I to find that Deb thanked me in The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook for lugging a big sack of French cocoa powder to New York City for her? But just after I read that in the acknowledgements, my head started reeling, thinking that others would start asking me to bring them cocoa powder as well.

foil-lined panFrench butter for gooey cinnamon cake
golden syrup and corn syrup for gooey cinnamon cakegooey cake batter in pan

That one time I did it, fortunately, I managed to avoid a catastrophe as I can’t imagine anything worse than opening up a suitcase and finding a kilo of cocoa powder had exploded in there.