Chocolate Crazy Cake Recipe

Call it the chocolate crazy cake, the wacky cake, the wowie cake or the depression cake. Call it by any name and the cake still tastes great. Soft, moist, rich and chocolaty. The wacky cake is one that became popular during the depression when ingredients where difficult to come by and so a rich treat with simple and not expensive ingredients is what led to the recipe. For the chocolate lovers at home and my daughter's class this was just perfect. 

With facebook having introduced videos, to me the best thing that has happened are the less than or just over a minute cooking videos. They are done so beautifully and make it look oh so simple that its extremely hard to keep away from trying. Sitting down with the morning cup of coffee and thinking of what to cook for lunch if you are shown a dozen mouthwatering videos, it is really hard. 

The chocolate crazy cake came up on my feed one morning and was one I wanted to try almost instantly. The comments on the recipe said it is certainly worth trying and this is a recipe that is tried and tested and baked my families across the globe for over 50 years. Simple everyday ingredients available in the pantry and hardly any preparation time, I jumped in. Mixed together all ingredients and into the oven it went. My whatsapp friends shared my joy of the wait for the cake to rise and be out of the oven. 

This is a no milk, no eggs cake recipe and so perfect for my vegetarian and vegan friends.  Coming to the recipe generally stuck by the Tip Hero recipe but for a few changes. 
-I realized that I did not have baking soda at hand and so substituted it for double the quantity of baking powder and skipped the salt. 
- I added 1/4 cup more water and a tbsp more of oil than what the recipe called for as while mixing I felt it lacked the required amount of moisture. 
*A friend of mine substituted the amount of sugar with half a can of condensed milk and it turned out beautifully for her. So there is really a lot of twists that can be added to this traditional recipe. 

Coming down to the recipe. 
Ingredients for the Chocolate Crazy Cake
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder (I substituted the 1 tsp of  baking soda with baking powder and skipped the salt)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 and 1/4 cup water

Method for making the chocolate cake:
1-Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Now add the wet ingredients one by one. Mix well with a electric beater or a whisk/fork.
2- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 deg F or 180 deg Celsius for 35 minutes(the baking time might differ slightly from oven to oven and so it would be good to keep a watch after 30 minutes to see if the cake is done). A fork or toothpick inserted should come clean. 
3- Cool and serve. You can serve it with the frosting of your choice(I decided to keep it simple and serve it lain for tea). 
*It came out very soft and moist, however, while still warm the outside seemed a little chewy. It changed to a soft exterior after it cooled down completely and tasted even better the next day.