Chocolate Crazy Cake

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup granulated sugar 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 1 tsp baking soda 
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1/3 cup bland cooking oil (not EVOO or anything fancy, just regular oil)
• 1 Tbsp vinegar (plain white vinegar, again nothing fancy)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 cup water, warm to hot but not boiling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease or line a 9 inch round cake pan or 9×9 square pan. I like to use parchment paper and cooking spray.
2. Add the cocoa powder to a large bowl. Pour the hot water over it and set aside.
3. While the cocoa is sitting, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and combine.
4. Add the oil, vanilla, and sugar to the cocoa mixture. Mix until well-blended.
5. Add the flour mixture to the cocoa mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined.
6. Quickly stir in the vinegar.
7. Pour into the greased cake pan.
8. Bake on a middle rack of the oven for 25 – 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
9. Allow the cake layers to cool on a cooling rack. Once cooled, frost or sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Note: when I learned to make this more than 50 years ago, I didn’t use parchment so I made the cake in the pan I was going to bake it in. I put in the dry ingredients, then added all the wet ingredients, stirred them until mixed, then baked it. I’ve gotten fancier now but the cake still tastes the same – yummy.