Quick and Easy Chocolate Cake
 
 
This cake goes by many names-- Depression Cake, Wacky Cake, War Cake--but no matter what you call it, it will be the easiest and quickest chocolate cake you will ever make, that smells delicious as it's cooking and tastes even better once it enters your mouth. It is also the perfect cake to have in your back pocket since this cake uses NO MILK, NO EGGS, and NO BUTTER. It will leave you wondering why you ever crack open a box of cake mix when baking a cake is this easy!
By:
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups all purpose flour
  • ½ - 1 cup sugar*
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 6 Tbsp neutral oil (or I have used coconut oil with success too)
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbsp white vinegar
  • 1 cup cold water
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In an 8 inch square pan** whisk together the dry ingredients.
  3. Make a well in the center and add the oil, vanilla, vinegar, and water and whisk until combined
  4. Bake for 35-40 minutes until toothpick comes out mostly clean (or the way I check-- lightly press the center with your finger. If it remains indented let it cook a bit longer. If it bounces back it's done!).
  5. Let it cool completely in pan on a wire rack (or remove and put on wire rack if you cooked it in a different greased pan or made cupcakes).
  6. If desired, top with your favorite frosting or ganache (I went a little crazy with it today, but it seriously doesn't even need anything!).
  7. Make sure to tell everyone it took you ALL DAY LONG to make this cake. then laugh to yourself inside. then hand them the recipe to this cake so they can know your secret.
Notes
*Usual recipes for this type of cake call for 1 cup sugar, but I find most desserts overly sweet. I cut the amount down and find that even just ½ cup sugar is plenty sweet for me, but feel free to use the full 1 cup if you desire!

**I had these mini bundt cake pans that I wanted to use so I mixed the batter in a separate bowl and poured it into my greased pans, so that I could easy pop them out and invert. In 6 mini bundt pans, they cooked for approximately 20 minutes. You can also make them into cupcakes, checking for doneness after 18 minutes)
Recipe by Honey on my Spoon at https://www.honeyonmyspoon.com/?p=395