PRESENTATION OUTLINE
INGREDIENTS
- 1-1/2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup water
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into an ungreased 8x8 glass baking dish.
- Make 3 depressions in the dry ingredients.
- Pour oil into one, vinegar into one, and vanilla into one.
- Pour water over all and mix thoroughly with a fork to moisten all dry ingredients.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
This recipe is important to my family because my grandma used to make this for her family, my dad grew up eating it and when he was my age he used to make it himself once in awhile. I went to my grandma's every day when I was little and she would always make this, now when I go there, my cousins and I always ask her to make it. And now my mom has the recipe so it will continue to be made when my grandma is gone.
I LIKE THIS RECIPE FOR 3 REASONS:
- It reminds me of my grandma's house.
- It never took her long to make when we asked for it.
- It tastes really good.
When I looked up Crazy Cake, I found there are 3 different names for the same recipe; Crazy Cake, Wacky Cake, and Dump Cake. Here is what I found; "Crazy Cake is an interesting study in culinary chemistry. What sets Crazy Cake apart from other chocolate cakes? Vinegar and method. A cake made by dumping the ingredients directly into the baking pan, mixing them, and baking the batter. Culinary evidence confirms this recipe existed in the 1940s. Crazy Cake is but one example of the tradition of "make do" cakes that were popular during times of short supply. It is thought that Crazy Cake was revived from WWI days."
Vinegar is a strange ingredient for chocolate cake, here is what I found out about it; "Vinegar has been in use for thousands of years and its origins are untraceable. One of the earliest references is from the 5th century BC, where Hippocrates recommended it's medicinal powers. However, then as now, its main use has been as a flavoring and preserving agent. There was no need to invent vinegar as it makes itself without difficulties."
Cocoa is the key ingredient in chocolate cake. Here is the history of cocoa; "Cocoa, a brown powder is produced by grinding the roasted seeds of a tropical American evergreen tree. When the Spaniards first encountered cocoa in Central America in the early sixteenth century, they named it cocao, an adaptation of cacahuatl, the term for cocoa bean in the Nahuatl language. English adopted the Spanish word in the mid-sixteenth century, and used it quite happily for the next 150 years or so." "1828 marks the beginning of the modern era in chocolate making and production. In that year, a Dutch chemist named Coenraad Johannes Van Houten took out a patent on a process for the manufacture of a new kind of powdered chocolate with a very low fat content."
