Frugal Cocoa Cake

[Granny Smith]

This is frugal because it contains no butter, milk, or eggs, yet it is about the moistest cake I've ever made. It's also very quick to make because you beat it with a whisk or wooden spoon, no mixer necessary.

Frugal Cocoa Cake

3 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. cocoa (I used 1/2 c. carob powder and 1 t. instant coffee)
2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 c. water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 T. vinegar
1 t. vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour (or just grease or spray) 9"x13" baking pan.

In large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.

Beat with spoon or wire whisk just until batter is smooth and ingredients are well-blended.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan. Frost if desired.

[eyeofthestorm]

This is my all time favorite cake to eat. I love it with white butter cream icing. I worked at a school for five years where they served it regularly. They called it "wacky cake." The kids and I, we called it "gone!"

[Granny Smith]

Aw, shoot! That IS what it is, isn't it? I didn't even realize it because the recipe is put together differently.

It really IS delicious and moist.

[Granny Smith]

I mixed up 5 batches of the dry ingredients and made homemade cake mix. Five batches is a lot more than you might think. I ended up putting it in a huge Tupperware bowl and a gallon ice cream bucket. I typed out an abbreviated recipe, covered it with tape, and put it inside the bucket.

The next day, I measured out 5 cups of the mix and made a cake. It took less than an hour, from beginning to end, and turned out perfectly.

I like this idea, but need to get a big canister to keep it in so I'm not hustling around, trying to find containers and to make mixing the dry ingredients easier - just measure them all in and shake it.

[meemo]

I would'nt have thought to make it up like cake mix. Thats a good idea. I'll put that on my list of things to do once we are moved. I'm goin to stir one of these cakes up in the morning and bake it before church.

[Granny Smith]

I didn't think of making the cake mix. I posted the recipe on Frugal's site and one of the other members said she thought it would make a good cake mix, so I tried it and it does.

[meemo]

This would make a good thing for x-mas presents. It would be pretty in a jar with a ribbon and directions.

[Granny Smith]

I'll bet everyone would like it! You could even mix the wet ingredients and put them in a second jar, since they're all shelf-stable.

[nappy]

In a copy of Penzey's Spices catalog was this crazy recipe where you make 3 holes in the dry ingredients..in one hole goes vegetable oil, the next is vinegar, and the last is the vanilla. Water is poured over all and lightly mixed together. Then put the batter in a 10" round cast iron frypan. It's sort of cute to see the cake in that pan which sometimes adds the flavor of bacon or whatever was in the pan before. And eventually I did figure out that it was the (in)famous Wacky cake recipe too.

[Granny Smith]

Oh, that's funny! I would have never thought to bake it in an iron skillet. I think I'll try that next time, just for fun.

[doris]

Okay, I'm gonna print that out... I still have cocoa at home... gotta try that.... it sounds really good