On Charlie’s First Official Day of Summer Vacation
And…
He’s already bored. So I told him to go make a cake. Oddly enough, he seemed to take me seriously, so I rooted around in my recipe box for my Crazy Cake recipe. I wonder if I am the only one who remembers this cake fondly? Is it popular? Does anyone still make it?
My mom made it a lot when I was a kid. Then, in 8th grade Home Ec class with Mrs. Kahnne, we made it at school. Remember Home Ec? Oh my gosh, what a lot of who-ha to make a pot of macaroni and cheese. I think the lead up to actual cooking took 75% of the quarter. I remember it being painful. I also remember the teacher said “measure” like “may-zure,” which I thought was distracting. I could remember nothing else after she said it, as the word replayed in a loop in my head. I wondered things like:
- Maybe she grew up with her mom pronouncing it that way…
- Why doesn’t she just roll over and say it the way everyone else says it?
- Does she think she sounds sophisticated?
Then along came Martha Stewart pronouncing the “H” in “herb” and I thought the same things all over again.
Anyway, this cake takes about 10 minutes to prepare and 40 minutes to bake. I am not a huge chocolate person, and I find it just perfect. I have heard of die-hard choco-manics adding tons more chocolate chips or — horrors! — frosting it. Yuck!
Crazy Cake
- 3 c flour
- 2 c sugar
- 1 t salt
- 2 t soda
- 1/3 unsweetened cocoa
- 1 t vanilla
- 3/4 vegetable or canola oil
- 2 T vinegar
- 1 cup (or to taste) chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, sugar, salt, soda and cocoa into an ungreased 9 x 13 pan.
Make three holes (2 small and 1 large) in the flour mixture.
Pour 1 teaspoon vanilla into one of the small holes. Pour 2 T vinegar into the other small one. Pour 3/4 cup oil into the large one.
Then, pour 2 cups water over the entire mixture and gently blend well with a fork until flour is all blended. Just remember to be gentle.
Sprinkle with desired amount of chocolate chips.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean (avoid chocolate chips!)
Eat,
eat,
eat.
Die.
Jackie says
Looks delicious! My kids and I used to make Crazy Cake all the time when they were going up. They took turns dumping in each of the ingredients and licking the utensils and bowls. Brings back great memories. Thanks for sharing.
admin says
I’m so glad to know it wasn’t just me and my crazy mom who made crazy cake!
Sarah says
Okay are the holes just for fun? Because my mom and I always envisioned some little old lady in heaven laughing at all of us for putting the holes in it for the wet ingredients…. Also, we don’t put the chocolate chips…you make an amazing cooked frosting…Ree did it on Pioneer woman cooks…pairs amazingly with this cake.
carina says
I think it’s amazing that you actually remembered Mrs. Conies name (this is how I would have spelled it?!) and then spelled it CORRECTLY!! The only thing that I remember about her was when she taught us how to use the washing machine and dryer! “don’t dry your clothes on a setting that is too hot it will ruin the fibers” “washing won’t ruin garments if you wash them properly, only wearing them will wear them down”… Thanks for the memories Jennie!!!
Jami says
Oh my kids will love trying this! They love to cook. I just taught them the basics so far – and last week we made tortillas (who doesn’t love squishing that dough?).
admin says
oh REE! She’s just so PERFECT! Honestly, here I was just starting my website and thinking about all the things I wanted to do. Then one day, someone on twitter mentions PW and — I swear, I’d never heard of her. really don’t spend that much time surfing around online– I go to her site… and I literally FALL into it for about 3 days. She is something else. Truly amazing. But then I was DEPRESSED! Because here was this woman, doing pretty much the same things I wanted to do, only about 100x better than I could ever do it! It took a couple weeks for me to realize we are nothing alike at all. She is a genuinely nice person. So I guess that makes me her evil twin?
As for the holes. I HAVE NO IDEA! I just do it. 🙂
Lou says
Until I came across this post I had NEVER heard of crazy cake – probably something to do with being born in England (now I live in Canada), but I am so going to close my browser now and make this!!!!
I have two slow cookers going in the kitchen as we speak (beef stew in one and cheesey potato bake in the other), and this cake will be perfect for dessert with vanilla ice cream – I can’t wait!!!
Thank you.
Lou 🙂
admin says
mmmm. Lou, you are on the right track. I think I’m going to make one right now! I haven’t had crazy cake since, well… Charlie made THIS ONE!!