Pat’s (Chocolate) Crazy Cake
Let’s give ourselves a reward for getting through a crazy time by making a Crazy Cake!
Well, we have recently come through a crazy time and are still here to talk about it. At least that’s how my world seems, as the holidays make me a wee bit crazy with all the to do…to do…to do. (Not to mention my recent journey through the maze of Cataract Surgery World – making my vision kind of crazy.)
Okay, so back in the day, after all that December-ness with everything spinning, it was an adjustment for me to transition into January. It seemed I suddenly found myself in a month that was soooo cold and soooo long. But now I relish these days, finding them to be peaceful and soul-refreshing after the craziness of December. So, I thought, what better way to find joy in and celebrate all the craziness we just endured (and maybe still are) than to share with you a recipe for…. wait for it… Crazy Cake!
We have the great gift here of another recipe from my friend Mary, who also gave us the recipe for her Grandma Essie’s Oatmeal Pie. This Crazy Cake recipe is from Mary’s mother Patricia, lovingly called Pat by everyone except for her grandma who called her Trishie. Pat was Grandma Essie’s daughter, and just like the Oatmeal Pie recipe this Crazy Cake recipe was passed down to Pat and then down to Mary. Because that’s what we do, right? Keep passing the love and the food down to our families through the generations.
Mary’s mom was one of seven children and each one of those kids had a weekday job involving dinner, with her mom being the dessert child. Just like the Oatmeal Pie, the Crazy Cake was created during the depression when there may have been a shortage of the usual cake ingredients. For instance, items most likely to be on-hand, like vinegar and baking soda, could replace the baking powder.
Mary’s mom would have been 100 years old this past May, so one of the ways Mary honored her was to spend time going through some favorite family recipes. She found this one for Crazy Cake in Pat’s personal handwritten cookbook. Written in pencil. While searching through those old recipes, Mary noticed that most of them were written in pencil. And, as she and I talked about that, we started wondering why so many recipes from the past were written that way. (A story I published earlier about another old cake recipe, Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake, was also written in pencil.) Maybe it was easier to find a pencil instead of a pen, or maybe it was easier to make changes and notations to the recipe if a pencil were used. I don’t know, but I really am curious about that. Just thinking out loud here: I make changes to almost every recipe I make. Maybe I should start using a pencil instead of an ink pen and white-out. Although ink does last longer. Hmmm…a dilemma.
So when the time came for Pat to start her own family, she continued the tradition of always having dessert after dinner. Growing up, there was Mary, her sister, and her three brothers who were always hungry! After Mary began showing an interest in making desserts while playing with her Easy Bake Oven, her mom introduced her to the Crazy Cake recipe and let her make it. At age eight, it was the first recipe Mary ever made by herself. This led to Mary getting her own first cookbook in 4th grade after realizing she really did love to make desserts, especially cakes, brownies, and butterscotch brownies.
As a child, Mary loved the process of making the Crazy Cake because all the mixing was done in the cake pan itself – no bowl was needed. But the most fun was making and filling three separate holes in the cake’s dry ingredients once they were combined in that baking pan. Into one hole went cooking oil, into another went vinegar, and the last one was filled with vanilla. Then water was poured over the whole thing, and it was carefully mixed up with the specific instruction to “make sure to get into the corners so there are no dry ingredients left.”
Crazy Cake
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Mix together in ungreased 9” baking pan. Make three holes in mixture, and fill with:
5 Tablespoons cooking oil – Hole #1
1 Tablespoon vinegar – Hole #2
1 teaspoon vanilla – Hole #3
Pour 1 cup water over everything and stir very well – being sure to get into the corners!
Bake for 25-30 minutes in a 350° oven. Serve warm with ice cream or cool completely and either frost or top with powdered sugar (and maybe still serve with ice cream!)
As you can see, there are no eggs, no milk, and no butter in this recipe. (Another predicament of the depression era, but handled easily in this recipe.) And mixing it all in one pan and poking holes in it is just another part of the craziness with this cake. I want to note that Mary used vegetable oil instead of melted shortening and added an extra Tablespoon of cocoa powder to the original recipe because, as she says, “You can never have too much chocolate, and it’s the most moist, wonderful chocolate cake you can imagine!”
In Mary’s family, if the cake was made with enough time before dinner, they topped it with frosting. But if time ran short and it didn’t have time to cool, it was served warm with a scoop of ice cream. Well, what’s not to love about all of that??
Ensuring that this cake will remain in her family and continuing on with the tradition, when she was only in first grade, Mary’s daughter made this cake all by herself in a heart-shaped pan for Mother’s Day. What a special treat for this family – the cake and the passing down of the recipe. Mary’s daughter now has a daughter, and I have to think that one of these days in the not too distant future, she will also hop up onto a stool in her grandma’s kitchen and make this cake all by herself.
Intrigued by this recipe, my 10-year-old twin grandchildren made Crazy Cake in my kitchen this past weekend. First of all, they loved the name of the cake and got a little crazy themselves in anticipation of making it, dancing around the kitchen in their aprons helping to collect ingredients. And they really did make it themselves – it’s very easy. They liked combining the dry ingredients in the pan, using small whisks to mix everything thoroughly. They especially liked making the holes in those dry ingredients and then filling them with the oil, vinegar (SO stinky in their opinions), and vanilla. Following my instruction, they made extra sure to get all the corners and edges stirred in so we had no dry ingredients lurking about before baking. Then they popped it into the oven, checking through the glass oven door every few minutes to see how the cake was progressing, giving me play-by-play commentary of the rising and baking situations. (By the way, our cake was done in 25 minutes, springing back when touched lightly.)
We chose to let the cake cool before eating it, and we used no frosting. Instead, we sprinkled the cake pieces with powered sugar and served it with vanilla bean ice cream. Delicious! One of the twins wanted to cut the whole cake into only fourths for serving the four of us, but I convinced her that sometimes less is more and each of us really did not need a fourth of a cake! Mary is right – this cake is moist and chocolatey and decadent. And our pieces were just the right size (in my opinion). So I will get 16 pieces out of this little cake, but you will know how much chocolatey-ness is right for you!
So now this Crazy Cake will have a place in our family as well and I’m betting that it will begin its own trip down through our generations. And maybe, just maybe, it will also find its way through yours…
I believe these recipes help make us who we are and bring back memories like nothing else can. I publish my family recipes but also invite you to join in and share yours. Who knows? Your recipe gem may become a treasure for another family, or you may find one that becomes your own family heirloom. To join in and submit a recipe, please email me at: ourgrandmasrecipebox@gmail.com
I also write the Substack column The Life and Times of a Midwestern Girl, where I discuss living life in the Midwest. I may be talking about a time when I was in need of food assistance, or it might be about how random conversations just seem to pop up among Midwesterners, or maybe we’ll discuss how I got brave enough to plant a Dahlia garden. (I know.) I will undoubtedly share stories of my adventures at the Iowa State Fair – both as an attendee and as a food-contest judge.
I want to sincerely thank every one of you who subscribe to my columns, whether paid or unpaid. It means the world to me that we can share this space together. As a paid subscriber, you will be invited to attend monthly Office Lounge Zoom calls hosted by members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative held at noon on the last Friday of the month (except for November and December). It’s a place where writers and readers can get to know each other better. (Here is the Zoom link for the next Office Lounge for paid subscribers.) You will also be invited to in-person gatherings hosted by IWC writers located across the state every now and again.
I am proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, an organization consisting of over 60 writers, poets, and songwriters with Iowa connections, where you will find great writing and fascinating information on any topic that interests you. As well as our individual columns, we publish two editions of our “newspaper” each week: with news and commentary on Sundays and one (where you will find my stories) with entertainment, essays, sports, etc. on Wednesdays. Here’s the latest. Check it out!
Thanks Connie! A college roommate made this quite a bit for our apartment of always ravenous folks...it was the 1970s after all.
I had forgot all about it until you awakened this memory.
Thanks Connie, I'll be baking this today. Let the weight gain begin!
(Hope your world isn't too hazy. Glad the surgery went well.)
LOVE this so much, Connie. I save up your posts to read like comfort food. And they are. I need to make this cake NOW. Plus I need that striped plate.