Oh dear, this sweet tooth of mine has kicked it up a notch this last month.  I blame baby boy #2… or the heat… or genetics… or whatever!  I planned a few treats and desserts for our 2 week meal plan, but apparently that was not enough this go-round.  I found myself scrounging through the pantry this weekend, trying to come up with a recipe that could use ingredients that I had on hand.  Enter “The Crazy Cake” that someone happened to pin on Pinterest a few minutes before I’d signed on.  I think it was meant to be that they pinned it at that moment, don’t you?  What else could I do but make it?

Crazy Cake.  Crazy as in it uses no eggs, no butter, and no milk.  When I told Chris that there were none of those things in this cake, he didn’t believe me.

And what’s cake without frosting?  I used this recipe which calls for all of 3 ingredients: coconut oil, dark chocolate chips, and vanilla.  If you want to go dairy-free, I’m thinking that you might be able to substitute carob chips for the dark chocolate {little bit of advice: make sure you wait till the icing is completely chilled and somewhat stiff before beating it – if it’s still in liquid form after the recommended 20 minutes, let it sit longer}.

I kept the cake in the fridge mainly because of the icing {it gets a bit runny if it’s too warm, and it’s been warm around Auckland these days}.  Chris and I both agreed that the cake and frosting were good.  Not out-of-this-world, but good and incredibly easy to throw together.  It’s also a nice recipe to have on hand if you’ve got guests with an egg or milk allergy.  I think that next time around, I’ll make it the same way but increase the frosting by half… we’re big frosting lovers in this house.

You’re probably wondering right about now, “Jenny, how do I make this crazy cake?!”  Well I’ll tell you…

Ingredients

• 3 C all-purpose flour
• 6 T cocoa
• 2 C white sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp white vinegar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 10 T {150mL} vegetable oil
• 2 C water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl and stir well with a fork or whisk.  Pour dry ingredients into a greased 9×13 inch baking pan.  Make one large impression in the center of the pan and 2 smaller impressions on either side of that (I just used the bottom of my 1 C measure to make the indentations).  Pour vegetable oil in large indentation, vinegar in one of the small indentation, and vanilla in the remaining small indentation.  Pour water over all, then mix with a fork.

Place pan in preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Yield: 16 regular-sized pieces or 12 giant pieces