Wacky Cake: The Easiest Chocolate Cake You'll Ever Make

Wacky Cake is seriously the easiest chocolate cake you’ll ever make. I discovered it last year when my mom made it for my daughter. My mom got the recipe from my aunt… meanwhile, a close friend says she’s been making it for years. I cannot believe I did not know about this recipe before then! I am telling you - this chocolate cake is not only simple to make it is delicious!

According to Wikipedia, Wacky Cake may have been created as the result of rationing during World War II, when milk and eggs were scarce. “The cake is considered a popular delicacy at bake sales in numerous rural regions of the United States.” Given how simple it is to make and how delicious it is - I can see why!

Wacky Cake Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Celsius

Ingredients

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 3 tbsp cocoa

• 1 cup of white sugar

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a 9x9 pan. Once they are mixed, make three wells and then pour in:

Wacky Cake: The Easiest Chocolate Cake You'll Ever Make

• 1 tbsp vinegar (into one well)

• 1 tsp vanilla (into the other)

• 5 tbsp oil (into the third well, don’t worry if it spills over)

Pour 1 cup of water over everything and then mix together with a fork. Once well mixed, pour 1 cup of chocolate chips over the batter (you can also add chopped pecans, if desired).

Bake for 30 minutes.

When the cake comes out of the oven take a knife and spread the melted chocolate chips over the top of the cake as though it is icing… and you’re done! Alternatively, you can omit the chocolate chips and sprinkle icing sugar over the top or use buttercream icing. This cake takes less than an hour from start to finish and is so good. My daughter asks for it all the time and I always make it for guests.

Do you have a go-to dessert recipe? Have you made a wacky cake before? Leave a comment and let us know!

Strawberries, strawberries, everywhere!

They're falling off the plants, and making their way onto our plates. I LOVE strawberry season. We try our very best not to purchase strawberries from the US, because it's just so lovely waiting for the delicious local strawberries to arrive in season. The flavour is so much better! Last night I scoured my recipe books for a quick strawberry cake I could make for dessert, and came across this one from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons. If you're going for healthy, this is definitely not a good choice :) But, I did cut the sugar back to 3/4 cup, and it was definitely sweet enough!

Cornmeal Strawberry Cake

1 1/3 cups cornmeal 2/3 cup unbleached white flour 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 1/4 cups sugar 4 large eggs, beaten 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 cup buttermilk (or yogurt) 1 cup sliced strawberries

Preheat oven to 350, and grease a 9 in cake pan. In a large bowl mix together cornmeal, flour, salt and baking powder.

In another bowl, mix butter and sugar (don't cream them). Stir in half the beaten eggs and mix. Stir in the rest of the eggs and mix well. Add the vanilla to the buttermilk. Add half the flour mixture to the egg mixture, and stir well (do not beat). Add the buttermilk and stir again. Then add the remaining flour mixture. Fold in the strawberries and pour the batter into the pan.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Serve with ice cream, whipped cream or greek yogurt!

Birthday parties: Bowling Bash

by AmandaY A few weeks before his birthday J and I were discussing what kind of party he would like to have.  He started by saying he wanted his grandparents and aunt and uncle to come over for supper.  I told him we would do that too, but I was really asking what kind of kids party he would like to have.  His eyes nearly popped out of his head, such was his surprise.

"A kids party?  I can have my friends at a party?"  He was so happy about that simple fact that he really had no clue what kind of party he should have.  So I gave him a few choices (based on my cost analysis research) and he ended up picking a Bowling Party at Merivale Bowling Lanes.

First of all, bowling is a great activity for kids.  It is active, fun, and really not all that hard to do.  They put bumpers on the lanes for kids so there are no gutter balls to discourage them.  This way, they hit the pins a lot more making it more fun for everyone.

The bowling balls are smaller, not as heavy so the kids can handle them fairly easily.  I don't recommend it for kids under 3-4.  There is music blasting, lights are low and the shoes glow in the dark!  Such simple things to enhance the experience. (Young or very sensitive children may be a bit scared or overwhelmed by the music, lights and noise of the bowling alley.)

My son invited six of his friends, 3 boys from school and 3 kids he's known since he was very little through my friends and daycare.  The kids dove into bowling with lots of enthusiasm, they picked up quickly when it was their turn and how to keep track of their scores, and at one point we had a mini mosh pit of little boys rolling around on top of each other.  Birthday boy was at the bottom, of course.  His friends were all so excited that they just piled on top of him to wish him happy birthday!

Merivale Bowling lanes did a really great job with my son's birthday party.  They were well organized, had a hostess assigned specifically to our party to facilitate our experience there.  We had one hour to bowl and one hour in the restaurant for lunch and cake.  Our hostess organized all the kids with their shoes, programmed all the lanes with names and such and checked in with us regularly to make sure things were going smoothly.  When we were done with bowling we went to the restaurant and the table was set with all the gifts at one end, and the food was ready so the kids didn't have to wait for anything.  They could dive into their pizza, bash open their bags of chips (yes, there were chips everywhere!), and they were all thirsty and so there was apple juice for all sitting at their places.  Presents were opened and cake was served.  Overall, the food was really good and they did a great job on the cake.

We would definitely go back again, both for just family bowling and likely for another birthday.  The cost was really very reasonable, it saved me a whole lot of work, all we had to do was bring the loot bags for our guests.  We bought gift bags in bright colours and filled them with fun items from our local Dollarama.  At the end of the party everyone seemed happy and the birthday boy was thrilled with it, which was, above all, the whole point.

Have you taken your kids bowling?

Amanda was born and raised in Ottawa where she continues to live with her husband and son “J”. Amanda is bilingual and interests include reading, blogging, socializing, and advocacy on children and teen issues.