Best Damn Chocolate Cake


Cake, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Dairy Free, Holiday, Recipes, Vegan / Friday, August 10th, 2018

Birthdays in my house are often an exercise in How Much Sugar Can I Get Away With in One Day for the kids. And the one we celebrated this week for the newly-minted 12 year old was a case in point. Let me present Exhibit A:

chocolate cake with green frosting
The Best Damn Chocolate Cake frosted and ready for decor.

Did I mention yet that my kids each want to decorate their own cakes every year? No? Well, then, Exhibit B:

This started out as “Mom, I want bunnies on my cake this year. And eyeballs. Oh, and worms.” The bunnies were supposed to be cute, but we kinda failed with that.
Plus those not-so-cute bunnies fell apart once we put them on the cake, so between the blood-shot eyeballs and the dismembered bunnies amidst worms, it turned into a gruesome, zombie bunny apocalypse, sugarpalooza cake. The 12yo was DELIGHTED. <3

Though once in a while, they pick out something that requires more Mom-decorating than others. This one below (and the idea for the bunnies and the eyeballs—from two separate cakes, mind you) comes from my kids’ current favorite cake decorating cookbook: Cake My Day.*

monster cake from Cake My Day
It’s a terrible picture, quickly snapped with an iPad years ago, but damn cute nonetheless.

And another favorite was the cake they turned into a cell model:

cell model cake
If only learning was ALWAYS this sweet.

The one thing all of these cakes have in common is what’s underneath the frosting—the Best Damn Chocolate Cake. My friend Tracy, who gave me this recipe about ten years ago, named it as such. And she had every reason to. This cake is light, fluffy, and moist. It’s so good, I haven’t made any other kind of chocolate cake since I got my greedy, grabby hands on it. And I’ve been searching ever since for it’s vanilla equal. (Still working on that.)

flour sugar salt, cocoa, baking soda, water, oil vanilla, vinegar
This, right here, is all you need. Just pour in the liqiud, mix it up, and bake. I mean, can it get any easier than that?

Not only is this the Best Damn Chocolate Cake, but it’s also unbelievably low-maintenance and super simple. It takes all of nine ingredients that you probably have in your cupboards right now, you throw everything into the bowl and mix it, then put it in the oven to bake. No special instructions, no fancy ingredients, no room temperature-ing, melting, whipping, or fluffing. Nada. You can’t get anymore straight forward than this.

tracing cake pans onto wax paper
Here’s a trick to get your cakes to come out of the pan wicked easy: line them with wax paper on the bottoms. Easiest way is to place the wax paper under the pan, and trace around the edge with scissor tips.
tracing cake pans onto wax paper
You’ll see a nice line when you’re done, then simply cut along the inside of that line.
cut-out wax paper liners for cake pan
Voila! You have the perfect size liner for your pan.
greased floured and wax paper liner
Place it inside your already greased-and-floured cake pan. Once the cake has cooled, loosen the sides with a knife, and the cake will pop right out. Peel the wax paper off the bottom of the cake and discard.

The magic of this cake is in the reaction between the vinegar and baking soda. As soon as you mix the wet into the dry ingredients, bubbles start forming and you can see them in your batter. Which means that you want to be able to slip this cake into the oven as soon as you’re done mixing it to ensure that you’re harnessing that chemical reaction to give your cake perfect lift.

cake batter
Excuse the blurry photo, but I wanted to show you the magic interaction of the baking soda and vinegar in this cake. See those bubbles forming? They’re what make your cake rise.
baked chocolate cake
Suh-WOON.

I’ve heard tell that this recipe has been around forever. My mom had heard about it way back when, but I’m not sure she ever made it. I can understand why. I mean, I’ve seen it called either Chocolate Depression Cake or Chocolate Vinegar Cake (and, seriously, WHY? Why would you call it that? Who’s gonna want to eat it with THOSE names?). Tracy had the right idea with hers: Best. Damn. Chocolate. Cake.

cupcakes

baked chocolate chip cupcakes
A serious favorite in our house—chocolate chip cupcakes, eaten just as they are right here. These are so quick, they can be done from start to finish in less than 30 minutes.

It is perilously similar to Bec’s gorgeous and quick Valentine’s Day chocolate cake recipe, but the biggest difference is that this recipe makes a larger cake. It’s standard size—one 13 x 19, two round layers, or 18-20 cupcakes.

chocolate cupcakes
This one time, I decided to get all fancy-pants and pipe on the frosting. When my kids laid eyes on them, they gleefully crowed, “They look like poop emojis!!!” (Sigh…they weren’t wrong. That’s what I get for trying to be fancy.) Also, this frosting is AMAZING and you should totally make it with this cake.

One of our favorite ways to make this cake is by throwing chocolate chips in the batter and baking it up as cupcakes. No frosting needed, just super rich, chocolatey goodness.

baked chocolate chip cupcake
(Can I tell you how hard it is to photograph chocolate cake? OMG). We eat the chocolate chip cupcakes plain, and holy chocolate, Batman, they are SOOOOOO good.

You’re welcome. <3

baked chocolate cake

Best Damn Chocolate Cake

A light, rich, and moist cake---the perfectly perfect-est chocolate cake you'll ever bake.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Course: Dessert

Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup cocoa
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar

For Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 F/177 C. Grease, flour, and line bottoms with wax paper either one 13 x 19 or two round layer pans. If making cupcakes, line muffin tins with papers.
  • Combine dry ingredients in bowl, then add liquids and mix well. If making the chocolate chip cupcakes, stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan(s), and bake immediately: cakes for about 30 minutes, or cupcakes for about 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  • Allow cake(s) to cool completely before frosting.

Notes

Recipe from my sweet friend Tracy. <3
 

*Cake My Day! is an Amazon affiliate link.  Thanks!  Please see the right sidebar for more info.

 

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