One of my favorite childhood memories is chocolate cake. That sounds silly, I know, but I think chocolate cake was quite important to us. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the homemade kind of chocolate cake; we really liked the box mix chocolate cakes. I’d make a lot of them, sometimes deviating from the norm and throwing in different flavors for our evening desserts (strawberry, caramel, etc.), but it was always chocolate that was the favorite.
I don’t even know why we never made a tradition of making homemade chocolate cakes. I was definitely interested in baking back then, but I know we weren’t concerned about preservatives and additives and artificial flavorings, so it didn’t really matter to us. We thought box mixes were quicker and easier than homemade and they always turned out just the way we liked them – soft, fluffy and chocolatey.
Oh did I ever have much to learn.
See this cake here? This chocolate cake with gorgeous, soft, fluffy frosting? Dotted with confetti sprinkles and chocolate popping candy? And the bunting floating above? This cake is soft, fudgey (I prefer fudgey cakes rather than fluffy cakes these days) and oh so chocolatey. And it didn’t come from a box. Oh, and it took just about the same amount of time to make this cake as it does a box mix cake.
And the frosting, I bet you’re thinking that takes just forever to make. The frosting’s the catch, right? Those super fluffy, swirly clouds. How do you make frosting like that? Well, you just simply whip some cream and slather it over your chocolate cake.
Honestly, this perfect-for-all-occasions cake takes the same amount of time to prepare – from start to finish – as a box mix cake. You now have no excuses; put that box mix back on the shelf and grab yourself a bag of flour instead.
Oh, that’s right! I haven’t mentioned yet that this cake actually requires no eggs or butter or even milk, so you don’t have to wait around for all your ingredients to warm up to room temperature. That’s because it’s a wacky cake! It’s a genius invention that supposedly has its origins in the 1940s, when certain ingredients were hard to come by, or too expensive, during World War II. The fact that there were none of the usual ingredients in the recipe – butter, eggs and milk – was so wacky that the cake affectionately became known as “wacky cake”.
I really wanted a quick chocolate cake fix a little while ago. No, a microwave mug cake wouldn’t do (those things are absolutely disgusting, anyway! Please don’t ever waste your time or ingredients making one!). I wanted a cake with frosting. The wacky cake recipe popped out at me as I was trying to think of an idea. Usually wacky cakes are dusted with icing sugar, but I wanted a real cake. With frosting. Hm. Well, what would be quicker, softer and fluffier than homemade whipped cream?
The last obstacle I had to get around, once I had decided on the recipe, was what sort of occasion could I celebrate that day that would justify making a cake? Did I have to have a reason? Couldn’t I just celebrate anything? Sure, why not. How about Happy Friday? Happy You-Made-It-Through-The-Week Day! Happy End-Of-The-Week Day! Happy It’s-The-Weekend Day! Or, well, something like that.
This particular day, I accidentally baked the wacky cake a couple minutes too long and it lost a little bit of the fudgey texture I adore in cakes. But it still tasted awesome. If you’re after fudginess, bake for a minimum amount of time. If you have a little sinking in the middle once you take the cake out of the oven, no big deal. Just know that you’ll soon be slicing into fudgey heaven. And you can cover the little crater with a mound of whipped cream anyway.
But if you like a normal cake texture, bake for a little longer (but not too long, or it’ll become dry and unpleasant!).
Oh, and here’s a tip. This cake tastes amazing straight from the refrigerator, especially if it’s on the fudgey side.
Celebrate your freedom from the box mix cake with this quick and delicious wacky cake recipe with whipped cream frosting!
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with baking paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder.
Using a spoon, make 3 wells in the dry ingredients, one large well and two smaller wells. Pour the grapeseed oil into the largest well, the vinegar into one of the smaller wells, and the vanilla extract into the last well. Pour the cold water over everything and whisk the ingredients together until the mixture is smooth.
Remove cake from the oven, place on a wire rack and cool for 5-10 minutes. Run a knife gently along the edge of the cake around the pan, then carefully turn the pan upside down to remove the cake, and leave to completely cool before adding frosting.
While the cake is cooling, place a medium bowl and your whisk into the refrigerator to cool for at least 15 minutes. When ready to frost, remove the bowl, whisk and cream from the refrigerator. Place cream, icing sugar, vanilla and food coloring, if using, in the bowl, and whisk (either with a handheld mixer with whisk attachment, electric whisk, or by hand!) just until stiff peaks firm (any longer and the mixture will start looking grainy and curdled, at which time you'll have to start over with a new cup of cream). Immediately spread the whipped cream onto the cooled cake with an offset spatula.
- If you're after a completely egg-free, dairy-free dessert, this cake is perfect. Just omit the whipped cream and whisk up some coconut whipped cream instead.
- Use a good, high-quality cocoa powder for a great-tasting chocolatey cake. I always use my favorite cocoa powder - Van Houten.
- If you over-whisk the cream, save it and make your own butter (search google for ideas for flavored butters!).
- Unfrosted, this cake will keep at room temp for a couple days, or in the refrigerator for a few days (freeze for a longer storage period). If frosted, always store in the refrigerator, should keep for a couple days.
what a fab cake – love it! Great photos and styling, too.
Wonderful photos you have! And your cake is absolutely fabulous! I can feel the word “freedom” in it!