A great kick is added to spicy pulled pork cooked in the slow cooker using a mixture of hot sauce, chili powder, paprika, adobo flavor, and cayenne pepper. Brown sugar and barbecue sauce increase sweetness.
| Servings: | 14 |
| Yield: | 1 -13×9 inch cake |
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 4 ½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons distilled white vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ cups water
- ¼ cup butter
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C). Spray one 13×9 inch cake pan with cooking oil spray.
- Mix the flour, white sugar, 4 1/2 tablespoons cocoa, baking soda and salt together in a bowl. Pour dry ingredients into the prepared pan. Scoop out 3 holes in the dry mixture. Put the vegetable oil in one hole, vinegar in the second hole, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the vanilla in the third hole. Pour the cold water over the top and stir until smooth.
- Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 20 minutes. Ice cake while it is still hot.
- To Make Icing: In a saucepan over medium heat melt the butter or margarine. Add the cocoa and remove pan from the heat. Stir in the salt, milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix in the confectioners’ sugar until desired consistency is attained. Spread icing over a still hot cake.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 413 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 76 g |
| Cholesterol | 9 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 286 mg |
| Sugars | 55 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Great cake–super rich, moist and chocolatey. However, the cake was not done at the 20 min. mark. Mine took a full 30 minutes. Also, I mixed all the ingredients in a separate mixing bowl, just because I didn’t want the 13 x 9 pan I was baking in to be messy with cake batter! I lined the perimeter of the cake with whole walnuts. My family gave it rave reviews!!!
This recipe I have made for 50 years. My mother had the ” I hate to cook book” and this recipe was in it. It is called Cockeyed Cake in the cook book. It is very moist and delicious. Worth making over and over.
This recipe is spot on. Except one change my mother taught me, instead of 1 1/2 cups of water, use 1 1/2 cups of very strong coffee. It makes a wonderful difference. everything else remains the same. This is one of my favorite cakes.
I’ve been making Wacky Cake for 40 years. It is my go to chocolate cake! My recipe calls for oil instead of butter. I just top the cake with homemade buttercream frosting and everyone loves it! It also makes up really well for chocolate trifle dessert! It makes a huge trifle with dark chocolate pudding, whipped cream and for added fun I add a layer Heath Bar pieces on top!
I first made this cake in 1975! It is great to make with children as helpers. Makes a good cake esp. when served warm.
I have been making this recipe since the mid 60’s. My mother had this recipe from depression times, it was called the “Cake Pan Cake”. It is my favorite go to recipe for an easy dessert, plus I think it has the best chocolate cake taste, better than a mix.
I was skeptical, but this is the BEST from-scratch chocolate cake! I don’t frost it…just add a bit of powdered sugar right before serving, either on whole cake or a piece at a time.
My mom made this cake all the time for birthdays and celebrations it was a very good chocolate cake that was quick and easy to make. She would always double the recipe for our large family !
I didn’t have any baking soda, so subbed in some additional baking powder. Easy peasy! The only thing I would change is to add a bit more chocolate, but otherwise, this is a super easy, very tasty cake!
I have been making this cake for 40 years and it is always moist and delicious AND oh so easy!! I don’t even frost it,I just eat it warm out of the dish.
Really one of the best chocolate cakes. A classic. So easy to make. We eat it cold with a whipped cream topping. For another good topping, make a small box of instant pudding. Mix one cup of the pudding with one cup of cool whip. This makes a very light, delicious cake topping.
Just like I remember as a kid! One thing I recalled while making it is that my mom used to change up the frosting on occasion by adding coffee or peanut butter to the mix, so it would have a whole new flavor! I don’t recall amounts, but imagine you can do it to taste. Thanks for the memories!
I have been making this cake for years but we always called it “depression” cake. A delicious cake even when ingredients were hard to get. This is my go-to cake when the pantry is low and I need a quick dessert. It truly doesn’t need icing to taste great. Powdered sugar or a simple glaze drizzled over is fine.
This Chocolate Wacky Cake has been a staple for me for years! my son is allergic to eggs and nuts and this cake has worked for birthdays and cupcakes etc. etc. We love it.
Made this yesterday to take with a meal I had made for another family. I had no eggs left so this was perfect. I made it in two 9 inch (?) round pans so I could keep one for us and give one away. It baked around 23 minutes and probably could have baked a few more minutes, but it was super-moist, which was great. I cannot imagine a 9 x 13 being done in 20 minutes like the directions say. It really is as easier than a cake mix (which I try to avoid) since you just measure and stir. No mixer needed. My husband asked what kind of chocolate I used since it was very chocolately. Just cocoa! The frosting is a really good one. I had doubts about putting it on the warm cake but it held up wonderfully. I ended using around 3 cups of powdered sugar. I will definitely make this again. I used to write menus for senior centers where lunch was served. I put wacky cake on the menu and it was always well liked. It was rarely served with frosting since it’s such a moist cake. But…I like frosting!!
Confusing recipe. Not sure how much cocoa powder goes in cake or frosting? Don’t think ingredients are listed in proper order?
I used to bake this cake 50 years ago when I was in high school. I think my grandma showed me how. It’s very good. I baked it in a loaf pan this time so I could do an Ina Garten dessert that uses melted vanilla ice cream on the bottom of a shallow dessert bowl. Add about a 1″ slice of cake on top of the ice cream and sprinkle with fresh raspberries. Stupendous! It comes off as a really fancy dessert and no one will know it’s melted ice cream if you don’t tell them. The ice cream tastes like as a fancy cream of some kind.
Tasty? Sure. especially since I was craving chocolate cake but did not have eggs or sweetened condensed milk. A few notes: 1. I’d rather dirty the extra dish and mix it in a bowl. I made a mess mixing it in the pan and my cake did stick a little. 2. The bake time was WAY off. I ended up baking it for 37 minutes. 3. I only made half the icing (Because I only had about 1 1/2 of powdered sugar. I think I would have liked it with all of the icing better. 😀 Over all a great cake when you’re out of eggs.
One of my all time favorite recipes from my mom! We don’t grease the pan but mix the dry ingredients directly in it. That saves you from dirtying an extra dish. The cake doesn’t stick to the pan. Everything else is done the same. I also use a different frosting for this cake. 1 c. powdered sugar, 1/3 c. cocoa, 3 T. water, pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1/4 c. soft butter. Wait until the cake cools before frosting.
this is awesome!My mom use to bake this when we were toddlers,like over 50 yrs and we still love it..We sometimes sprinkler icing sugar instead of icing.Or we use a stencil with icing sugar for themes..One of the best cakes around and so simple…even my kids and granddaughter loves this cake when I bake it..
For having no eggs and butter this cake is really quite good. I made cupcakes out of it and they turned out nicely.