This was a recipe that has been passed down in my family as well. It's called 'crazy cake' because it's made without eggs and butter. It became popular during War Rations because it didn't use eggs or butter. Our family recipe calls for 2 Tablespoons of vinegar, 2 teaspoons of salt and 3/4 c. oil. It makes a FANTASTICly chocolatey cake (and trust me, you can't taste the vinegar).
If you're making a layer cake, I'd use less oil, as the 3/4 c. makes a very soft and tender cake that won't hold up outside a pan. We top our crazy cake with a boiled chocolate p'nut butter frosting (fudgy!) or with cool whip and a variety of crushed up chocolate candies...but it's way yummy just right out of the pan with nothing on it!
This recipe is terrible! I should have known - there are no eggs in the recipe! The cake tasted like a runny sugar and coco water mixture. Very plain one dimensional and simple. Don't be fooled by the name "crazy chocolate cake". The cake was not rich nor moist. In fact it took long to bake and even then it appeared uncooked in the middle (sort of like a brownie consistency but minus the chocolaty-richness). If someone baked this for my birthday I'd throw it at them.
i was a little nervous about making this cake after reading such extreme contrasting views - i decided that i'd go for it, hoping that the raving reviews would reflect my opinion.
so i started to bake this cake for my husbands birthday party - after i had the batter in the cake pan and ready to go into the oven i realized that there wouldn't be enough for all of the party guests so i hauled out my ingredients again and made another batch.
here's the interesting part. i found that the first batch had a cookie dough consistancy vs. a cake batter consistancy but the second time around it was like a typical cake batter. my conclusion is that i must have missed adding something in the first batch because the first cake was: 1. baked in only 20 minutes 2. very dry 3. very flavorless. Yikes!! BUT.. The second cake was AMAZING living up to every positive review I read... so my advice is to: 1. carefully follow the directions and 2. don't give up if the first cake is a dud.
I changed the recipe a little. I took the cocoa up to a full cup and added an egg for good measure. The cake turned out rich and moist! It was so simple to make too! Thanks for a great recipe.
This cake was amazing! It was thick and moist HOWEVER... due to doing the mixing right in the pan the flour did not get thouroughly mixed in which resulted in chewy parts of the cake. I suggest using a net thingy to thin out the flour before putting it in the pan.
This came out great - I did up the cocoa powder to 1 cup - like others had suggested doing. We made cupcakes out it for my daughter's birthday. No idea how people ended up with bad results - this was so easy to put together and it is so moist and chocolate-y!!
Let me thank you for putting ths cake on here! It is the BEST most moist cake I've ever made!! and simple too. Thank you again its the best chocolate cake!!! I can't say it enough.
This cake was sooo good and chocolatey. We added almost 1 cup of cocoa powder to enrich the flavor. My son loved that you can make it in the pan!! thank you it is a keeper for us!
A very similar recipe appeared in Peg Bracken's "I Hate To Cook Cookbook" as Cockeyed Cake and I remember seeing another in one of the first Bake Off cookbooks (from the early 1950's). My family has been making Cockeyed Cake for 40 years and never had a failure that I can recall. THE CORRECT AMOUNT OF VINEGAR PROBABLY SHOULD BE 2 TABLESPOONS NOT 2 TEASPOONS! YOU MAY ALSO TRY 2 TEASPOONS OF VANILLA. I also think that the preparation instructions may be causing some problems here. The original recipes were 1/2 this amount and were mixed in a 9" pan. THE DRY INGREDIENTS MUST BE SIFTED TOGETHER WELL BEFORE YOU ADD THE WET INGREDIENTS. You may want to do what the original recipes specified: Make three wells (one each for the vinegar oil and vanilla) then pour the cold water over all. When I make this I generally use a bowl to mix the batter rather than the baking pan. It is easier to get the batter evenly mixed. Also the vinegar activates the baking soda right away so it is important to get the cake in the oven immediately.
