I thought I’d share a few family recipes around the Christmas holidays. My grandmother used to make a wacky cake, probably earning its name from preparing the dessert in the baking pan.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa

1/3 cup vegetable oil (may use melted shortening)

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8×8 baking pan with cooking spray.

Sift dry ingredients into the baking pan and mix well. Make three holes and pour oil, vanilla, and vinegar into separate holes. Pour water over the top.

Mix well. My grandma used a fork to combine the wet and dry ingredients. It took about two minutes to stir the mixture, but do not beat.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Leave the cake in the pan.

Frosting ingredients

½ cup sugar

½ cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

1 ½ tablespoon flour

½ cup coconut

½ cup nuts (optional)

½ teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients except vanilla in a saucepan and cook on a medium heat until the frosting thickens. This takes 2 – 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and stir well. Tip–if  you omit the nuts, you can increase the amount of coconut to 1 cup. Or,  you may omit the coconut and use 1 cup of chopped nuts.

The frosting is almost pourable consistency. Frost cake while still warm.

This is a delicious, dense chocolate cake and would be a fun recipe to make with elementary-aged children. Thanks for the recipe, Grandma!

I’d love to hear if you try this. Enjoy!

-Sandra Merville Hart