Absurd Wacky Chocolate Cake

This week I'm cooking from The I Hate to Cook Book: 50th Anniversary Edition Cook Book by Peg Bracken. 2010 was the 50th edition of the book, and I wanted to see what made it such a long-lasting book.

There are many quick and easy desserts in this book, and several have intriguing names. For example, the Hootenholler Whiskey Cake and Cockeyed Cake both caught my eye immediately.

To an experienced cake or cookie baker, the directions for the Cockeyed Cake might sound apocryphal. Bracken recommends greasing the pan, then sifting into the pan flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt. After that,you're supposed to poke holes into the dry ingredients, pour wet ingredients in, pour water over top of the whole thing and mix right in the pan.

It all sounded to Easy-Bake Oven for me, so I did a little internet research. Sure, plenty of others have written about and made this cake - it's been around for years and may have originated during the Depression era. I particular like the advice from this blog: don't mix in the pan unless you're good at that.

Umm, I've never mixed in the pan, so that makes me an absolute beginner. And on a Monday night after a wacky day at work, I didn't want to take too many chances. I used a small glass bowl, dropped in the dry ingredients, and mixed them up.

Dry Ingredients

 I used a dark chocolate cocoa, and poked holes in the dry ingredients. Can you tell what wet ingredients are in the holes?

If you can believe it, the wet ingredients are vegetable oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Then you pour water over the top and the ingredients start to bubble.

I used my sexy red whisk to mix the whole thing up.

Into the prepared pan it went, and straight into the oven.The batter tasted good, so I had high hopes. I also like that this batter did not have any raw eggs: more batter for me to eat without worrying about salmonella poisoning. Or overeating the batter and just not feeling good.

I can't say I'll make it again anytime soon; after all, I prefer a bar cookie to cake at home. This was a satisfying, dark chocolate cake, and I munched on it throughout the week. It was a nice way to wrap up an uneven week eating from The I Hate To Cook Book, and the book was returned to the library on Saturday. I chuckled to myself about Bracken's keen sense of humor, and wondered what book I'd select for next week's menu.