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.