Do you remember long ago, when I posted a venting post about the Crazy Cake that is so beloved in Paul’s family? It is a Depression Era cake, and so it contains no eggs, no butter, and only one tablespoon of baking cocoa per entire layer of “chocolate” cake. (Those quotation marks are just as bitchy as you imagine.)
Trust me that I know and understand that a Beloved Family Recipe can taste DELICIOUS to a person, even if it has no butter and no eggs and features a Depression-Era skimp on cocoa. (And of course it is LOVELY to have a cake option like this if you are looking for a dairy/egg-free cake for allergy reasons, though I’d advise DRAMATICALLY INCREASING the cocoa.) We have similar recipes in my own family, including a cherished delight that has come down through the generations and is nothing more than pork sausage seasoned with salt and pepper and baked into rolls of white bread dough, then dipped into ketchup; this is our HUGE SPECIAL OCCASION meal. We also have a green Jell-o salad that has cottage cheese in it, so please don’t think I don’t understand sentimental family recipes.
But I also understand that my sentimental family recipes are not OBJECTIVELY good to people who didn’t grow up with them and so have neither the “family” nor the “sentimental” elements. I expect Paul to eat the white-bread-wrapped sausage rolls on my family’s special occasions, but I don’t expect him to talk about how AMAZING and EXCEPTIONAL the recipe is, which is what his family does about this cake. It’s so MOIST! It’s so DELICIOUS! It’s the BEST CAKE EVER! Not like those inferior “BOX” mixes! (They say their quotes all bitchy-like, too.)
So if this cake is cherished to you because of you grew up with it and your grandma baked it whenever you visited or whatever, and your family always brings it out on special occasions, I DO get where you are coming from. But I think in order to discuss the cake further, we need to remember and agree that it is a DEPRESSION ERA cake. It was meant to substitute for the real thing when essential ingredients were not available. It’s like a diet recipe that uses fat-free “cream” and artificial sweetener and cottage cheese and applesauce to simulate a dessert. It is a MAKE-DO dessert, a SURVIVAL dessert. We now have ACCESS to the butter and eggs and cream and sugar and cocoa, so GOD KNOWS why we would continue to make do with the survival cake. On the other hand, I now have the option to eat filet mignon on Christmas Eve but I would greatly prefer my salt/pepper sausage wrapped in white bread and dipped in ketchup, and I would resent any attempts to tell me the filet mignon was “better,” so I DO get it. (But if our recipe had been made from inferior ingredients during the Depression, like suet and tongue-end mixed with stale bread crumbs to simulate meat, you can bet I’d substitute the better ingredients now that we had them, rather than preserving The Original Recipe.)
In short, I have feelings and opinions about this cake, and yet I am committed to making this cake for Paul every year on his birthday, and I am committed to doing it with as good an attitude as I can muster: I will tell YOU how frustrating I find it, but I will not vent to HIM. (Much.) (Anymore.) And also, I have a certain percentage of self-identity invested in my baking, and food/gifts are my love language, and so I want it to be as good as possible: I take no pleasure (very little pleasure) in having it come out terrible. I have re-copied his mother’s recipe onto my own index card in my own handwriting, to reduce the resentment I feel and hopefully improve the results by not making me feel as if her grating, critical, bossy voice is in my ear. I have committed to NOT trying to substitute butter/eggs/etc. to make it taste “better,” remembering that I would not want Paul to substitute any ingredients in one of my cherished family recipes, if he ever made one of my cherished family recipes for me.
But here is the thing: for at least the last half-dozen years, and possibly longer, the cake has come out IMPOSSIBLY BADLY. It NEVER came out of the pan easily, but it used to come out in no more than two to three pieces per layer, and I could paste those together with frosting and resentment—but the last half-dozen years, it has had to be SPOONED out of the pan in chunks. I am not exaggerating when I say I have cried and screamed, literally cried and screamed, after carefully carefully carefully applying Crisco and flour to the cake pans, carefully following the recipe, and still getting oily pale-brown chunks that can’t be formed into a cake. Paul has had to spend more than one Birthday Eve reassuring me that it’s okay and it doesn’t matter and that he’ll have something else as his birthday dessert, and no one should have to do that on their Birthday Eve and/or on the topic of their once-per-year special sentimental dessert. THIS CANNOT CONTINUE.
Here is where you come in, I HOPE: If you make this recipe as a Cherished Family Cake and you like it, can you tell me anything you do that HAS to be done to make it come out right? Maybe I copied it wrong from my mother-in-law’s stupid picky bossy recipe card. Or maybe it literally requires two tablespoons of actual vanilla extract (that’s the same as the amount of cocoa), at the current non-Depression-Era price of roughly six dollars, and maybe everything is going wrong because I substituted imitation vanilla or because I made the assumption that 2 T. was a transcription error and it should have been 2 t. Maybe my attempt to add more cocoa is the problem, though I have tried going back to the original two tablespoons, with no improvement. Maybe there was an instruction about removal-from-the-pans that I thought I could do without. Or maybe when I rolled my eyes at instructions such as “Beat exactly two minutes BY THE CLOCK!!!!,” I was rolling my eyes at actual essential elements of the magic spell. I may have worked in a bakery, but that doesn’t mean I understand MAGICAL SPELLS. I will accept the magical spell from YOUR family’s recipe, even as I resisted it from Paul’s family recipe. I will accept YOUR gentle guidance even though I rejected Paul’s mother’s bossy fist. (Gah, that woman was the WORST with recipes. All of them were either “Oh, I don’t really use measurements or instructions” with a merry little laugh, or else SUPER DUPER EXCESSIVELY PICKY AND DETAILED WITH LOTS OF ALL-CAPS.)
And I’m not above some fussy prissiness in a recipe. When I was on Weight Watchers, if you had told me I needed to whip a mixture for two full minutes, or use the fat-free sugar-free version of an item, or use ground oatmeal instead of flour, I would absolutely have done it without blinking or flinching. And now that I’m on keto, if you told me to use a particular kind of meat, or use more butter, or use a specific weird expensive sugar substitute, I would be similarly all-in. “Doing it the right way” is not a problem as long as it is not my mother-in-law telling me what is right. (And if you’ve never had a single problem and it’s the easiest/best cake in the world and you don’t know what I could be talking about, you know that’s not helpful and you can keep it.)
Follow-up: After writing this post, I impulsively decided to make the cake in a no-birthday-pressure environment, just to see what happened, and maybe to get some good photos of it sticking to the pan. And instead it came out beautifully, and did not fall apart into any chunks. Here are the things I did that may or may not have been important:
• A wet-ingredients bowl and a dry-ingredients bowl, and not combining until the last minute. Which I have done before, because see also: I like to bake and have worked in a bakery.
• Then mixing them for EXACTLY TWO MINUTES BY THE CLOCK (with one pause to scrape the bowl), which I have done before, because see also: really trying to get this right, even if it means allowing end results to take priority over irritations and resentments.
• Letting the cakes cool for 15 minutes, then using a soft spatula to go around the edges before de-panning, which I have done before, because see also: I like to bake and have worked in a bakery.
• I did, however, QUADRUPLE the cocoa powder, because 1 T. per cake layer is nothing more than FOOD COLORING. Even a QUADRUPLE amount is not really enough, but I don’t want to ruin Paul’s childhood memories. But I have increased the cocoa before without him noticing/minding.
Second follow-up: Wait. Wait wait wait. THE OVEN. Our oven was gradually failing for a number of years, then we recently replaced it, but then we moved so I never tried the cake in the new oven. The new house has an oven that we have noticed is very good: some things that were troublesome to bake before are now non-troublesome. And “oven” is the only answer I can think of that explains why I USED to be able to make the cake come out right, but then couldn’t anymore.
This trial run is so heartening! I am eager to hear others’ advice because my only explanation is ghosts. “Oven” seems more reasonable a factor.
Favorite bits: “ those quotation marks are just as bitchy as you can imagine. “
“ I could paste those together with frosting and resentment.”
“ I may have worked in a bakery, but that doesn’t mean I understand magical spells. “
Glad it worked. Hopefully it does the same on Birthday day. We have a couple ridiculous recipes we make because they are family passed down, including my husband’s birthday cake. Love that stuff, but it definitely helps when you can get the end product out of the pan!
Oh my gosh! I never thought anyone could convince me that my mother in law was the bomb, but you just did. Congrats! There are no in law side family recipes that I must make. If my husband ever tried to say that his mom’s chicken caciatore recipe was the very best thing ever, I would have to bring up the fact that she makes mashed potatoes from a box!!! My in laws may not be locked into recipes that must be served on special occasions, but they are constantly in your face about how to practice the Catholic faith. I get emails about how we should read the cathecism as a family. Not sure which is worse, bad recipe zealots or religious zealots.
Hope your oven IS the answer and that you never struggle with the cake coming out right again. Hating something AND not making it successfully is a frustrating combination.
We refer to my in-laws as Catholic Jihadists. They experienced a spiritual awakening at retirement, previously they were more of the check the box variety. It’s challenging to deal with their new zealotry. You have my sympathy
Oh, brother! Love that nickname. Hilarious! Mine have always been like that, but they never cease to amaze me/tick me off – even though I am older and wiser and think I can stomach it. I am grateful that they are in Florida half of the year, but the emails are a killer. My MIL thinks I am too busy to talk on the phone, so she doesn’t call me anymore. Praise God! :) (little does she know that I am an expert multi-tasker and while I have no problem talking while babysitting in my house for teachers’ kids, I am happy to avoid conversing with her).
Those updates are a rollercoaster of emotions! I’m so happy for you, fellow lover of baking, that you have a great oven now!
I once made a very fussy cake, and the pan preparation went something like this:
Brush the inside of the pan with melted butter. Make a sling of parchment paper, so that there is one long strip that goes across the bottom and hangs over the sides, and then another strip going the other way.
Then more melted butter brushed on top of that. (You might have to use Crisco for authenticity.) It worked, and now every time I make a cake I do a simplified version with butter, then a rectangle of parchment, then more butter.
Thank goodness there are no passed-down family recipes on my husband’s side. There are favorite items, but they are more of a suggestion (gingerbread with lemon sauce! Frozen cheese pizza with extra pepperoni!) but no actual RECIPES.
The Cooks Illustrated brownie recipe (delish, and they use cake flour, so if you have little kids who want to help by stirring you can let them with no adverse consequences) has a similar sling recommendation. I don’t bother. They’re brownies and I’m motivated, so I will pry them out of the greased pan as needed.
When I make cakes, I cut circles of wax or parchment paper, grease the bottom of the pan, add a circle, grease the circle. Cakes come right out, but that doesn’t seem like much of a payoff for the cake Swistle’s talking about (which I used to make for a friend’s kid who had an egg allergy).
Also, definitely 2 teaspoons of vanilla. I am betting your MIL copied it wrong and you just perpetuated HER ERROR. Also, use more cocoa!
https://www.rachelelwood.com/buttermilk-chocolate-cake/
I absolutely second the parchment paper. It fixes every stuck cake in pan situation and isn’t that complicated of an addition! Glad you figured out it was the oven though- that should give you a small warm fuzzy about the new house as well?
Parchment paper that comes PRE-CUT to the RIGHT SIZE for the cake pan has been LIFE CHANGING for me. Cutting out parchment paper has always been one of those tasks that I just hate for no particularly good reason despite trying many “just do it this way and it’s easy” methods. Pre-cut parchment sheets are worth every penny to me.
I learned how to make this kind of cake (called “Cockeyed Cake” by Peg Bracken in her “I Hate To Cook Book” which is actually a wonderful, funny read) back in eighth grade home ec. I even won a blue ribbon in 4-H with it, which is either a wonderful testament to the cake itself or a horrible judgement upon the standards at 4-H competitions.
Anyway, here is my recipe. It’s not for a layer cake, this is not meant for a layer cake because it’s so moist you can’t really get it out of the pan like that. I always bake it in a square pan and just cut pieces out of that, or double it and make it a 9×13. You don’t have to grease the pan, i never have. This was my go-to when my little kids wanted to make a cake (and lick the spoon).
Ingredients
1½ cups flour
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cold water
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 F
In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and soda. Make three “wells” in the dry mixture. Distribute the oil, vanilla and vinegar in the holes. Pour the cold water over all and mix well until it is completely incorporated and smooth.
Pour into your prepared pan and bake for half an hour, until the cake springs back after being touched gently.
Ha ha ha ha!
“I even won a blue ribbon in 4-H with it, which is either a wonderful testament to the cake itself or a horrible judgement upon the standards at 4-H competitions.”
Yes! This is the version I use, in fact, I just made mini cupcakes with it last night for a preK party. I like making this for people who won’t appreciate a better recipe and nice ingredients. (See preK “just here for the frosting” party)
I was wondering if maybe the flour makes a difference. I think some types of flour have more or less protein in them? Or maybe the flour itself (if you haven’t changed brands) might have changed a bit. But the oven makes way more sense.
Oh, flour is a good thought! I have not thought to be consistent with that, and I buy various brands—but I remember when Paul was experimenting with baking bread, he had me get/avoid specific kinds because of the protein! This time I used Gold Medal all-purpose.
I dunno if Paul would be open to this level of transformation, but this is the very BEST version of that exact kind of cake: https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/10/chocolate-olive-oil-cake-more-book-tour/
Her cakes are so good. I think I once subbed olive oil into a chocolate cake mix (for necessity not for fun) and I liked it.
Have you tried her red wine chocolate cake? It’s now my go to adult celebration cake, and I make it with buttermilk for my kids’ birthday parties. Love it.
You wouldn’t think it, but attitude and intention really do affect outcomes. I’ve had food I’ve made available hundred times come out terribly because I was angry or resentful while making it.
I feel like I’ve seen a movie that has this as a central theme…
This is the conceit of “Like Water for Chocolate,” no? :)
Yes! That’s the one!
So many good books and movies with these themes!!!
https://www.amazon.com/Particular-Sadness-Lemon-Cake/dp/0385720963
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUh3jY62xGk Tortilla Soup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-jlmaYX2n0 Mostly Martha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb2QJvmETL4 Like Water for Chocolate (Forgive the Miramax/Harvey Weinstein origins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7pKpO8NErU Eat Drink Man Woman
I grew up on this cake, too. And I recall a LOT more than 1Tbsp of cocoa in it. Google “crazy cake sweet little bluebird” and if you double it, that’s MY grandmother’s recipe. It’s meant to be mixed in the (9×13) pan and I’ve never seen anyone try and turn it into a layer cake. It does work well for cupcakes, though, and decently with gluten free flour.
I was going to say get an oven thermometer. Cooking at the wrong temp – even if it’s not technically overbaked – can do wonky things. Hope the new oven is the charm!
I am a miserable baker, but I totally relate on the topic of resentment for having to cook an inferior dish for one’s husband because it was his favorite thing his mother made for him when he was a child. I also don’t know if the recipe was sabotaged when it was handed down to me. The recipe is beef meatballs with a sauce of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup, served over white rice with a side of frozen corn. Over the years, I have tried to morph it into something edible, one small ingredient at a time, with the hope of overwriting the childhood memory without the overt dis on his mother. It’s still pretty gross (and the kids won’t touch it), but seasoning the meatballs, adding in fresh sauteed mushrooms, deglazing the pan with wine, and using fresh corn helps a little. If I had to make it more than once a year I would work on a substitution for the soup…
My husband’s mother never cooked (which, frankly, makes another issue in itself) so this issue is foreign to me. But what is with this? Why do some men think wives should suddenly take over as mothers? Why can’t these husbands learn to make the monstrosities themselves? Are these husbands attempting to recreate fond childhood memories for their wives as well? Somehow I doubt it. Rage against the machine that wives are supposed to create memories for their own children AND RE-create them for their husbands at the same time.
Swistle, I’m extremely pleased your situation worked out well, such as it is. Sorry for the rage interlude.
OMG – yes, this!
The whole time I was reading this post, I was thinking of what happened last Mothers Day… and I guess I’m a bitch, but I definitely would have told Paul to make his own damn lame ass cake!
Luckily for me, if there’s anything my husband *doesn’t* want me to be – it’s his mother.
My sister makes a version of this cake (I think) and “they” call it a “Fast Day Cake” (the “they” is her inlaws /eyeroll), BUT honestly it’s really good and very chocolate-y. They serve it with whipped cream and strawberries.
I was thinking this, too, reading the comments. Not the birthday cake, because you shouldn’t have to make your own birthday cake and it should be what you want. But, this idea of needing to learn someone else’s recipe is foreign to me. My husband grew up in a different country with a different food tradition than my Southern American. After nearly twenty years together, our day to day food is generally a blend of the two cuisines. But, he cooks. So, if he wants something specific, he makes it.
And that’s probably really good, because we don’t really have recipes on either side of the family. My kids are definitely going to complain when they can’t remember how to make something. Both their parents and all three living grandparents are of the “oh, just a bit of this and some of that, plus whatever spices seem right” variety of cook.
Oh my word that sounds awful. Just . . . no.
I discovered Crazy Cake when my son was little and he had a milk allergy. He grew out of it by the time he was 3 but it has been my birthday cake recipe ever since (and with 5 kids I make it a lot!). I like it because it makes a nice sturdy cake that holds up to decorating/carving well. I used to be a baker before I had kids and I still love to decorate cakes for my kids. That said, my recipe sounds different than yours. This is my recipe. I double it to make a 9×13 or 2 rounds.
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup oil
1 cup water
So mine has 2/3 cup cocoa. Not 2 T. I can’t even imagine.
Another thought. Subbing the water for coffee deepens the chocolate flavor. I also think you could up the cocoa to 3/4 cup and still be good. But you might have to make those changes very gradually. Good luck!
When I was married the first time I put too much load on my poor wife to recreate certain childhood memories at certain times of the year.
Now that I’m married for the second time I’m not doing that to my lovely wife and am rather asking my mom for those special things that she used to do, because she bloody well already knows how to do them — and am building new memories with my new family.
Well done, Jim. Who knows, maybe your mom can pass down her traditions through you. Then you can teach your kids the cupcake recipe/pigs in a blanket/s’mores/Christmas pudding directly. :)
The beloved family recipe from when I was growing up was what my beloved mother called “Glop.” She had learned it from her mother during their Depression days on the farm and here is the recipe: “Boil a dozen eggs. Slice. Crush medium bag of cheapest brand potato chips. Mix with two cans cream of mushroom soup and eggs. Bake in 350 oven until bubbly. If you’re feeling extra-fancy, mix in 1 cup of frozen peas.” My siblings and I LOVED Glop so I tried it on my sons. They were aghast and I’ve never made it again. Maybe at the next family reunion…
I would put a lot on the oven, to be honest.
I feel fortunate that neither I nor my husband have family recipes that we love. About the closest we get to it is that I feel very strongly that I should make a baked good for birthdays and Christmas, but the actual nature of the baked goods are completely up to me. My husband is generally pretty happy with whatever he gets fed and loves ALL baked goods, so it works.
My main suggestion for Paul’s cake would be to have him make it himself, which I expect is just not how these things work in your house.
HAHAHAHAHA! I love everything about this post! It’s pure Swistle gold. :)
I learned about this family tradition phenomenon when I married into a family that LOOOOVES these weird, hard, non-tasty baked things called rusks. I guess they are Swedish and taste good with coffee? Because the coffee softens them up enough to make them chewable and also covers up the (lack of) flavor? I was really confused until I asked my wife about it, and she was self-aware enough to explain that yes, they are disgusting, but they are full of NOSTALGIA. Until then I felt a little like I was the crazy person and everybody else was sane. It was as if they were saying, “Don’t ALLLL families put herring on their hamburgers?”
My family makes an objectively delicious mandarin orange fluff Jell-O salad. It is tasty even though the combination of ingredients appears disgusting. My mom didn’t really like to cook or bake in general, so my wife is fortunate that all my favorite special occasion dishes are things we have made together. And my special birthday treat is buttercream cupcakes from the grocery store, just like mom used to make.
That looks very much like a recipe that I got from some neighbor’s when we moved into our previous home…they brought us the cake and the recipe on a card that also included their phone number and names of all the family members, which was such an awesome welcome gift. Only the recipe is for a 9×9 square pan and uses at least 1/3 cup cocoa plus chocolate chips. Our neighbor called it “Snack Cake” which seemed perfect – a quick and easy recipe you can throw together for a little snack but not a proper Birthday Cake or any other Special Occasion dessert. We sprinkle powdered sugar on top… I have to say the recipe for the Crazy Cake frosting does not make my mouth water in anticipation.
It seems weird that a depression-era cake would so skimp on cocoa but use so much vanilla, which is so expensive. And
And, totally agree with the suggestions above for a circle of parchment paper on the bottom of the layer pans. Game changing.
Do you read Smitten Kitchen? Aka best creator of food ever? Well she recently made a Depression era cake – I think she called it a wacky cake? And the comments were crazy – so many people having absolute epic disasters for no reason that she could work out – and that’s nearly unheard of on SK, everything is v meticulously tested. Altitude seems to be part of the reason it works better for some people than others, but there appeared to be lots of variables. Basically it reassured me I should stick to NORMAL CAKE with butter and eggs and sugar – but of course that’s not an option if it’s not what Paul’s birthday heart desires.
Luckily my OH (who is 40 this week!) has one cake craving in life: chocolate and peanut butter in any form. So that’s tomorrow’s job, with a 3-year-old ‘helper’.
Oh, wow! I’m glad you got one cake to turn out the way it should. I wonder if the oven just runs a little hotter than the old one. Are there instructions for knowing when the crazy cake is done? Like whether a toothpick comes out clean? I wonder if the crumbly ones were just a tad more moist and crumbled accordingly.
At any rate, congrats on the win!
I agree that family cake recipes are totally memory- and context-dependent. Everyone loves their mama’s cake.
Yes: when toothpick comes out clean. The time instruction is something like 35-45 minutes, and at 35 minutes the toothpick was already clean so I hope the cake won’t be too dry.
Yes, may it not dry out, because God forbid it isn’t LIKE PUDDING!!! Ha ha ha ha.
I feel like they need to be introduced to molten chocolate cake for a truly decadent, pudding-like cake. But to each his own (birthday cake). :)
We too had this as a family recipe but it never was quite so excessively terrible, and definitely never with that god-awful icing.
Anyway as an adult, I’ve found Smitten Kitchen makes a very good version using literally 3/4 cup of cocoa!!!! if you want to try a new recipe of the same cake: https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/10/chocolate-olive-oil-cake-more-book-tour/
I was not ready for that roller coaster! *sipping more coffee*
My family did this cake too so I’m nodding along to all.the.things.
Our family special dessert is ambrosia: sour cream, pineapple shreds, mandarin oranges, and small marshmallows. Add coconut if you’re feeling wealthy and fancy. Kevin’s family makes it using whipped cream, fruit cocktail, and marshmallows. Weird. AND THEN, an aunt added SNICKERS BARS once. It’s as terrible as you just imagined.
With my .01 oz. worth of knowledge, I think you’re right on all counts: Separate bowls, endless mixing, different oven, and a dash of resentment are probably all contributing factors. That being said: I love that you keep trying. I would have lit the house on fire by now. Now go drink wine, you’ve earned it.
“If it were any more moist it would be PUDDING!” Ah, I remember so fondly your original Crazy Cake post.
A few years ago, I made a cake from an Amelia Bedelia book (of all things) and realized after the fact that it was a Crazy Cake. Fortunately, it was a sheet cake so I never had to take it out of the pan, but I will say that my husband LOVED IT (much like Mr. Rodgers in the Amelia Bedelia book and the bake-off judges, not to spoil the story for anyone). To be honest, I think his positive reaction was mostly to the homemade buttercream frosting I put on it, in defiance of the Depression-era strictures of the recipe. Without the frosting, it honestly tasted to me like nothing (though it had like 2/3 c. of cocoa in it, which seems like a reasonable amount) and left a greasy residue in my mouth.
Mmm, greasy residue!
I have made chocolate cakes without butter and people, the only oil cake that is really good is carrot cake.
I am thinking of the work Meredith’s buttercream had to do, and I’m also thinking about the traditional wacky cake icing and I just keep coming back to a Pepperidge Farm slogan: “If you’re going to have a cookie, have a cookie” meaning do it up proper.
I make this cake and it is my favorite for cupcakes because it’s supportive of almost any frosting. But! But, I use SIGNIFICANTLY more cocoa powder and I use DARK Dutch-process powder and sometimes a bit of espresso powder. Here is my recipe:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup warm water
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
I mix the dry ingredients with a whisk in a bowl and then I mix the wet into them, sometimes adding a bit more water to make the batter nice and runny. I then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
I have NEVER been able to make the cake come nicely out of the pan without lining the pan with parchment paper and Pam on the bottom and then cutting around the sides. I have never attempted layers because I’m not sure I could pick them up without breaking them. Most of the time, I just frost it in the pan and we cut it out, but that’s not very pretty.
This is not an heirloom recipe, bit I can assure you that we LOVE it because it is moist to the point of being sticky and so chocolate-y.
Good luck!
Hold up! I am a pretty darned devoted reader, I would say parTICularly of your entries that mention brownies, and yet somehow missed completely that you had worked in a bakery! in my world, it’s like discovering you’re a–a Jedi, or something!
I was a mere utility clerk, but it was good experience! I was in charge of muffins, cookies, and brownies, plus I filled/iced the doughnuts. I also helped the bakers to make breads and rolls, and by the time I left that job I could make the cinnamon buns and some of the fancier doughnutty things such as apple fritters. It was pretty fun!
Awesomesauce!
My son has an egg allergy and I have a go-to recipe for an egg-free chocolate cake (it can be made vegan too, though I totally undermine that aspect when I use buttercream to frost it). I’ve put it up on Tasty Kitchen so that I can send a link to it when a parent hosting a party asks for an egg-free cake recipe.
https://tastykitchen.com/recipes/special-dietary-needs/egg-free-chocolate-cake/
I’ve had people tell me they’ll keep using it when they need a chocolate cake, even if they can have eggs. I haven’t ever tried to get it out of the pan though – I just frost and serve right in the pan.
I haven’t read the comments so I apologize if this is a repeat but I have gluten and dairy intolerances so I use this. I am not a good baker but it’s never failed me once. And people always say it’s delicious. I use store-bought dairy free icing.
Ingredients
3 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free All Purpose Baking Flour [Please note: This recipe requires the use of our Gluten-free All Purpose Baking Flour. Using our Gluten-free 1-to-1 Baking Flour may result in a poor end product.]
2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
3/4 cup Oil
2 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 cups Water
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, soda, salt, and xanthan gum together into a 9″ x 13″ ungreased cake pan. Make three wells; pour oil into one well, vinegar into second, and vanilla into third well. Pour cold water over all, and stir well with a fork.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 30 to 40 minutes.
Let cool then frost with your favorite Gluten-Free icing!
No helpful advice, just wanted to add that this post gave me a good laugh. It at least made me appreciate my husband’s gross family traditions are super easy.
I was reading those updates with bated breath!
I don’t make a cake anything like this, but my best advice for any cake (using round cake pans), is to spray the bottoms and sides of the pan with cooking spray, then lay down a coffee filter across the bottoms of each pan, then spray the top with with more cooking spray and gently smooth the coffee filter down with your fingertips. It doesn’t have to all lay flat, the batter with accomplish that, just mostly. Then bake as directed. This is similar to the waxed paper or parchment circles that others suggested, but so much faster and cheaper (at least cheaper than parchment) and works wonderfully. Good luck! However, I think the oven may have been your culprit.
Could the cake you just made be wrapped up and put in the freezer to be brought out for Paul’s birthday? If this was me, that’s what I’d do if the birthday wasn’t too far away…
Ohhh! Genius!
I always freeze cakes and cupcakes because they are easier to ice: no crumbs.
Glad you got it to work!
Before I read the updates here is what I was planning to say: I actually prefer that type of cake to butter and eggs cake – because I think it tastes more chocolatey – but the recipe I usually use has much more than 1Tb cocoa. One thing I have noticed looking at similar recipes is that the total amount of flour+cocoa stays the same – but recipes seem to slide the dial to use more or less cocoa vs flour. So if you are adding cocoa, you might consider subtracting an equivalent amount of flour.
I’m glad you figured out that the probable culprit was the oven. In my experience, if nothing else on your end has changed, there has to be something extraneous happening. Ugh, frustrating. I will say I make a chocolate zucchini loaf that is delicious (and moist) (but not LIKE PUDDING ALMOST) and for the first two tries I could never get it out of the pan no matter what I did. I now line my pans with parchment paper and pull it out of the pan. It’s easier but because I’m too lazy to cut it properly, it’s always a bit weird shaped.
Does it NEED to come out of the pan? Could it be served like a sheet cake or is it strictly a layer cake thing? I guess it doesn’t matter because you figured it out anyway! I cannot imagine vanilla or cocoa would have made one whit of difference here (except in a flavour-improving way).
My nephew has Mega allergies, so we LOVE the wacky cake. The recipe I have says one should mix the ingredients in the cake pan, instead of in a mixing bowl. I found that makes the cake stick to the pan.
I’m not sure if that instruction is pertinent in your version of the recipe, but it might help.
I’m glad to hear that this cake finally worked for you – the culprit was most likely the oven. The one thing I SWEAR by when it comes to greasing the cake pan is Pam Baking Spray With Flour. I have a very intricate bundt pan and this is the ONLY thing that will ensure that cake slides out unmarred.
The wikipedia entry for this cake mentions that the gluten in the flour is the binder since it doesn’t have eggs; which would imply that the two minute beating is really necessary to activate said gluten.
If you adjust the recipe according to other similar ones on the internet and the birthday ‘boy’ likes it then I really don’t think it matters if it is the MIL’s recipe or not.
Pretty sure I made this cake a time or two before I had to stop eating wheat but I’ve never heard of using flour in icing. I wouldn’t care for milk-skin either.
Happy baking!!
I’d go with the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan if getting it out is the frustrating part.
Crazy cake is really good…I think you just have a dud recipe. Why so little chocolate? That can’t be right! Just google some other crazy cake/depre cake/wacky cake recipes, and find one that looks better. He’ll never know the difference.
I would never recreate my MiL’s recipe for my husband…I like to think I am a much better cook/baker than she is (because I AM), and that would make me resentful and grumbly. However, I do make my husband make my mom’s red velvet cake for MY birthday! 😝
I’m beginning to wonder if one of the reasons my husband and I get along so well is that he is a wonderful cook and baker. He loves to cook, we both love to eat. Actually the first night we met, and kissed the daylights out of each other-I remember saying something like “you are pretty cute”, and he said “And I can cook!”. It was such a funny thing for him to say, and 26 years later, it is so vivid to me. He wasn’t bragging-and the fact there is no pressure for me in the kitchen, I now realize is a real gift!
This is SO CUTE!
I think this is the same cake that we call a ‘wacky cake’, which uses vinegar as the raising agent? If not please disregard. I make this cake for allergy reasons and I have gotten used to it over the years so I have convinced myself that it is nice :). I do find that the icing is essential and I use the glace kind with pure icing sugar, lots of cocoa and boiling water to mix.
1 + 1/2 cups of SR flour
3 Tabs cocoa (that is a quarter cup in Australian metric – I think maybe 4 American tablespoons but I’m not sure)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
5 Tabs oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup water
1 Tab vinegar
Stir together the dry ingredients in one bowl, mix the wet ingredients in another (I just measure it all into a jug). Make a well in the dry and then stir in the wet. Mix with a beater for a minute or two. I cook mine in a ring tin that is greased and lined with baking paper until a skewer comes out clean.
I have found that if you leave out the vinegar or use balsamic or something the recipe will not work so I use bog-standard white vinegar. I have never had much luck cutting and filling this cake, no making layers. I just find the filling tends to leak out the sides for some unexplained reason?? Maybe the solution is to present it plainly with ice-cream on the side? Just one plain iced cake with something pretty on top??
I do think the recipe should say 2 tsp of vanilla. I’m wondering if they used to make their own and dilute it during the depression? I can’t think of another explanation. My recipe has 1 tsp of vanilla. It does have a ‘variation’ which is to leave out the cocoa and use 2 tsp of vanilla. I have not tried that one!
The recipe for that Depression cake [the irony of this just struck me] was in the box of favorite recipes my MIL gave me at our wedding shower. However, its name in her collection was “Whacky Cake.” Until reading these comments, I had never once thought about the presumption that went along with that recipe box, and a similar lack of pass-alongs to the men.
Isn’t that maddening? My MIL made a binder labeled “Swistle’s Recipes” that was recipes from her side of the family that I would presumably want to make for her son. And the thing is, the gift itself (without the title) is valuable, sentimental, and useful, as well as a symbolic acceptance/welcoming of the new family member! It’s the title/recipient that fills it with baggage. My book of recipes. For me to cook. For her son. Because I would be doing all the cooking, and because I would want to cook what his mother cooked. One little tweak (just making it well-liked recipes we might want copies of and giving it to us both as a household gift) and it’s a totally different (BETTER) idea. I am making a note in the Ways To (I Hope) Be A Better Mother-in-Law file!
She definitely set the bar low for you to sail right over it without even trying. I think you’ll be an outstanding MIL.
There are almost the opposite problems in my families. My mother-in-law makes the very best version of one of my favorite dishes and my husband hasn’t been able to copy it. It isn’t something I want to cook, but her version is so perfect it actually makes me sad the few times he’s made it. Its possible he prefers his version however, I’m afraid to ask. After being together over 20 years I just learned he prefers his mothers lumpy almost concrete mashed potatoes. I thought smooth and creamy was so universally desired I’m not sure I’ll ever recover.
The very first recipe I asked my grandmother for included a couple special ingredients that I discovered years later were never written down or shared with everyone. When she passed I asked for more of her recipes and it was obvious some of them were missing ingredients. One of my favorites had two ingredients for example. I was so sad that I assumed all her recipes would be missing things that I’ve never attempted to even use them. However!…I just read your first cake post and realized I should just google the recipes and see what versions other people have! So Thank You!! (In my defense the internet barely existed when I first got them so maybe that’s why I didn’t think of it.)
Suet and tongue-end mixed with stale bread crumbs? Sounds like Francie Nolan’s kind of meal!
I wondered if people would recognize that! It’s such a memorable make-do recipe! (Though I may have made up the suet part.)
Loving this post and the previous one too.
My sister gave me a box of recipes when I got married, filled with fun recipes she knows I like. One was for a cake she made for my birthday, that was delicious and chocolate-y, and was glazed with more chocolate. And it sounds like it’s a variant on your crazy cake.
Six-Minute Chocolate Cake (from Moosewood Cooks at Home)
1 and 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup cold water or brewed coffee (I recommend the coffee)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp vinegar
Preheat oven to 375. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and sugar into an ungreased 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan.
In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure together the water (or coffee), oil, and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the pan and mix batter with a fork or small whisk. When smooth, add vinegar and stir quickly. There will be pale swirls where the vinegar and baking soda react. Stir just until vinegar is evenly distributed. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Set aside. If making glaze, reset oven to 300.
Glaze:
1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cups hot water, milk, or half-and-half
1/2 tsp vanilla
Melt the chocolate in an oven-proof bowl or skillet in the oven for approx. 15 minutes. Stir chocolate, vanilla and (adding the liquid slowly) the 3/4 cup hot liquid until smooth. Spoon glaze over cake.
Refrigerate cake 30 minutes before serving.
I’ve made this cake several times, because it’s all pantry ingredients and you mix it in the pan. It’s fine. I have been pleased by how easy it is to pull out of the pan, which is weird given Swistle’s issues? But it has more flour and more oil, so maybe that’s what’s going on.
Yes, my thought too.
This recipe was also gifted to me by my MIL. It calls for 1/4 c of cocoa tho, and a cream cheese frosting. It’s fine… but maybe doesn’t need to be served at EVERY SINGLE birthday/holiday. Easter Bunny crazy cake, birthday crazy cake, Baby shower when I am pregnant with twins crazy cake. You get the idea. This last celebration my 6 year old son didn’t finish his because “I really don’t like the frosting” and I thought that I’d have to start cpr.