Back in the good ol' days of the early 2000s, I used to be an innocent 8 year old boy. I played sports, I played video games, I practiced piano, and I even baked and cooked!
Actually, in retrospect, I really haven't changed very much.
Anyway, I believe I promised a few recipes a few days ago. I apologize for not getting on this earlier, but I soon learned that taking pictures while baking is surprisingly difficult! Thank God this recipe isn't took difficult!
So, here we go: Kooky Chocolate Cake
I received this recipe from an old recipe book that had tons of recipes without eggs or milk. I believe it was made in Serbia, Russia or Greece, but it was written in English, so I didn't need to have a translator with me while doing this :D
Anyway, my Mom used to make this recipe every time we'd fast: three times a year. She noticed that I liked baking with her that she gave me the duty to make this all by myself. It was my first solo culinary task that I've ever got then, so it meant a lot to me.
Despite my lack of experience and young age, the cake turned out decently well. It has continued to be a traditional dessert of ours during these religious times.
Despite my lack of experience and young age, the cake turned out decently well. It has continued to be a traditional dessert of ours during these religious times.
That being said, I don't think any of my readers will find this recipe difficult to make, unless you've never baked anything in your life. Well... if so, then perhaps it's time to start!
So, here's what you'll need to make this:
- INGREDIENTS -
-Dry-
1½ cups of Flour
¾ cup of Sugar
½ cup of Cocoa Powder (Nesquik is highly recommended)
1 teaspoon of Baking Soda (Extremely Important)
¼ teaspoon of Salt
~Moist~
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
1/3 cup of Oil (Vegetable recommended)
1 cup of Cold Water
First things first: Make sure you have all these things and
all the equipment necessary.
You require at least 1 measuring cup and a set of measuring
spoons. You need at least a teaspoon and a tablespoon. You also need 1
medium-sized bowl and a square baking pan that measures to 9-inches. I use a
glass Pyrex pan, since there isn’t a chance of it leaving flavour in your food,
unlike metal pans.
Also, make sure to pre-heat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit (or 175
Celsius).
In this picture, I’ve displayed all the items I use. If you can find these ones exactly, then that’s great, but if not, then don’t fret. As long as you have to same type of ingredient, you shouldn’t have any problems.
Step 1: Dry Ingredients
Add all of the dry ingredients into the medium-sized bowl in
the exact order as listed above. If you live in the United States
Once all the dry ingredients are in the bowl, just mix with
a spoon or an electric mixer. You don’t need any large equipment, since this
recipe is decently small.
Mix it until your mixture looks same the whole way through. It
should look like this.
Step 2: Moist Ingredients
Add the vinegar into the dry ingredients. This is very important because
the vinegar, being the rising agent in this cake, needs time to have direct
contact with the baking soda.
Once you’ve added the vinegar, it should start bubbling
like this:
Add the remaining ingredients.
Once they’re all in the bowl,
mix it with either a spoon or an electric mixer. The mixer is obviously a
better choice, since it mixes the batter better. Don’t overmix the ingredients
too much. In fact, I think you only need to mix the batter for 1 minute, but
make sure it is all mixed together and becomes one homogenous mixture without
notable dry parts, like this:
If it’s slightly bubbling, that means it is working!
Step 3: Into the Pan
Before you put the mixture into the pan, pour a small amount
of oil into the pan and spread it all around the bottom and sides, using a
paper towel. Alternatively, you could use cooking spray on the bottom. It is
just as efficient and doesn’t grease your hands up. You’re also not wasting a
perfectly good paper towel.
Just use the same oil you added to the cake.
Once the bottom is greased, pour the batter into the pan.
For greater efficiency, use your spoon or a spatula, if you’re fancy, to scrape
the sides of the bowl to get all of the batter. This is also a great chance to
test your mixture, since eating this raw can’t kill you (since there are not
eggs in it)
Also, make sure you’ve pre-heated your oven to 350 Fahrenheit
(or 175 Celsius). This is important since you need to have a perfect heat in
your oven for it to bake properly. Unfortunately for me, I didn't preheat this
cake, and, although it tasted amazing, it didn’t look professional.
Also, make sure to have a rack in the middle of the oven. This is also important for baking reasons that I'm unsure of.
Put the pan into the oven, and set a timer for 35 minutes. This
is an approximate time, since all ovens work differently. Usually, you’ll need
to add a few extra minutes so the cake is baked to your liking.
To check if the cake is baked properly, stick a toothpick in
the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, then that means that your cake does
not need any more baking and you’re technically done. If you get even a little
bit of cake on the toothpick, keep it in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.
And after the 35+ minutes have elapsed, you’re done! Let the
cake cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting, removing, or putting icing
on.
If you want a condensed, "printable" version of this recipe, just copy and paste the following into your word processor.
KOOKY CHOCOLATE CAKE
Ingredients:
-Dry-
1½ cups of Flour
¾ cup of Sugar
½ cup of Cocoa Powder (Nesquik is highly recommended)
1 teaspoon of Baking Soda (Extremely Important)
¼ teaspoon of Salt
~Moist~
1 tablespoon of Vinegar (Extremely Important)
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
1/3 cup of Oil (Vegetable recommended)
1 cup of Cold Water
1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Set an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Grease a 9-inch pan with oil.
2. Combine all dry ingredients together in the same order as above. Mix until mixture looks homogeneous.
3. Add all moist ingredients in the same order as above. Blend together until mixture looks homogeneous.
4. Pour the mixture into the 9-inch pan. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven, and bake for 35+ minutes
5. Set to cool for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!
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