-=> Quoting Dave Drum to Sean Dennis <=-

 DD> That's sort-of upside down. Usually suburbia is the high-priced
 DD> spread and the core city is, if not El Cheapo Central, at least
 DD> more reasonable.

That may be true in post industrial rustbelt smokestack cities. But
not in all cities. Downtown Toronto is $1.7 MM plus, while the GTA
is $1M with a handful of rundown places under $500K. And Sean was
talking about rural counties far outside the suburbs anyway.
Peterborough is 55 miles northwest of Oshawa and the average home
there is just $365K (and even that is up 25% in one year thanks to
the Covid bump).

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: Devil's Food Cake - Country Living Holidays
 Categories: Desserts, Cakes, Chocolate, Frosting
      Yield: 12 Servings
 
    1/4 c  Butter or margarine,
           -softened
  1 1/2 c  Sugar
    1/4 ts Salt
      1 tb Vanilla
    3/4 c  Unsweetened cocoa
  3 1/2 c  Unsifted cake flour
      2 ts Baking soda
  2 1/2 c  Water
      4    Egg whites, at room temp.
           Cocoa frosting
           Chocolate glaze
           Confectioners' sugar and
           -unsweetened cocoa (opt.
           -for checkerboard
           -decoration)
 
  Heat oven to 350 F. Generously grease and flour three 9-inch round
  cake pans.
  
  In a large bowl with electric beater or mixer, beat butter, 3/4 C
  sugar, salt, and vanilla together until fluffy. Combine cocoa,
  flour, and soda in a sifter. Sift into bowl on top of butter
  mixture. Add water and beat at low speed just until smooth.
  
  With clean beaters in a medium bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy.
  Gradually add remaining 3/4 C sugar. Continue beating until stiff
  peaks form. Fold, one-third at a time, into chocolate batter.
  
  Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake until centers spring
  back when touched-20 to 25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pans. Turn
  out on cooling rack and cool completely.
  
  Prepare cocoa frosting. Fill and assemble cake. Spread a thin
  smooth layer of frosting over cake. Refrigerate 1 hour.
  
  Prepare chocolate glaze. Place chilled cake on a cooling rack with
  a tray underneath it. Spoon glaze onto top of cake. Spread evenly
  allowing glaze to flow down sides. Smooth sides.
  
  Place cake, still on cooling rack with tray, in refrigerator until
  glaze is firm. Decorate top with cocoa and confectioners' sugar
  checkerboard just before serving, if desired. Place 1-inch strips
  of thin cardboard gently onto frosting 1-inch apart. Sift
  unsweetened cocoa over top of cake to solidly fill spaces.
  Carefully remove and clean strips. Place gently in opposite
  direction. Sift confectioners' sugar over cake. Remove strips.
  
  Cocoa Frosting: In a medium bowl, beat together 1/3 C softened
  butter or margarine, 1 1/2 lb confectioners' sugar, 1/3 C
  unsweetened cocoa, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 3/4 t vanilla and
  1/3 to 1/2 C milk. Use to fill and frost cake.
  
  Chocolate Glaze: In the top of a double boiler, over hot (not
  boiling) water, melt 6 1-oz squares semisweet chocolate and 4 T
  butter. Stir in 3 T cold water and 1/4 C confectioners' sugar
  until smooth. Use to glaze a 9-inch cake.
  
  Country Living Holidays/92  Scanned & fixed by Di Pahl
 
MMMMM

Cheers

Jim


... When you screw up an omelet you still have scrambled eggs & it's ok

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