For Your Chocolate Cake Craving

Ever get a craving for chocolate cake and decide to make it right then?  You go in the kitchen and start getting out the supplies only to find you are missing one crucial ingredient?  At that point you have to decide whether you want the chocolate cake bad enough to go to the store and obtain the missing ingredient or whether to give up the dream altogether for another day.

Well I have the solution for you!  The other day I was in the mood for dessert of some kind and was looking for something easy to make.  I flipped through Go Dairy Free to the dessert section and found “Chocolate Wacky Cake”.  The blurb at the top said the recipe needed “no introduction” because it was so well known.  Well I had actually never heard of it before!  I must have been living in a cave all these years.

I took to my computer and quickly found that Wacky Cake was born out of the Depression when people had to ration their food supplies.  Milk and eggs were scarce so some genius person came up with a method of making a cake using only pantry staples.

Here’s the recipe from Go Dairy Free.  I don’t like to post recipes from cookbooks anymore, since the recipe is the property of the author.  However this seems to be such a common and widely known recipe with many variations that I feel okay about posting it here.  I reduced the sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 cup and also added an extra touch at the end to jazz it up a bit.  🙂

Chocolate Wacky Cake
Makes one 8 inch square or round cake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used 1 cup AP and 1/2 cup WWPF)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup cold water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease an 8 inch square or round baking dish.  In a large bowl sift or whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt together (I hate sifting so I always put all the dry ingredients together and just whisk them together).

Make 3 small wells in the flour mixture and place the oil in one, the vinegar in another, and the vanilla in the last well.  Pour the cold water over the top of everything and stir until well combined.  Pour the batter into your prepared baking dish and bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before frosting.

Now make chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Sauce (from Chef In You)

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/8 cup cocoa powder
3 tbsp warm water

In a 1 cup measuring cup or small bowl, mix together powdered sugar and cocoa powder.  Add water and stir until combined.  Sauce will be thin.

Poke holes in the top of the cake with a fork or a knife.  Pour chocolate sauce over the top.  The sauce should soak down into the cake.  Once it has soaked in you are ready to cut and serve!

This was seriously the best chocolate cake I have ever had.  Benzo had some and loved it.  Movie Mom had some and loved it.  OYB (older younger brother) had some and loved it.  It is incredibly moist and almost fudgy.

I think you could easily use all whole wheat pastry flour instead of mixing it with all-purpose.  I mixed the two because I am almost out of WWPF and didn’t have enough for this recipe.  I also think you could stir in a couple tablespoons of ground flax to add some extra fiber and Omega-3s if desired.

Knowing this recipe can be a good or a bad thing.  Good because now I can make chocolate cake whenever I want because I usually have all the ingredients on hand.  Bad because now I can make chocolate cake whenever I want because I usually have all the ingredients on hand.

This cake also makes a really nice breakfast by the way.  😀

Here are some other recipes for Wacky Cake:

Chocolate Wacky Cake from VegWeb
Wacky Cake VIII from All Recipes

Have you ever heard of Wacky Cake before?  Or am I the only one living in a cave?