Easy Chocolate Cake

After failing to make "Never Fail Chocolate Cake" in Jr. High, making cake from "scratch" was never appealing. So, while living in Japan, I only made "that kind" of cake when I had shelled out $5 for a cake mix or brought one home from the US. Even then, I got out my kitchen scale (oh how I wish I had brought THAT with me here!) and halved the cake mix so I could make two desserts with it. Sometimes a single layer cake and sometimes a batch of cookies. YUM.

Well, a year or so ago, some readers and I discussed the "perfect" cookie. In the midst of that discussion, I got some good cookie advice from a new friend AND a question about a recipe for a GOOD "from scratch" cake recipe. I ran from THAT question as fast as I could.

Then, a friend here let me taste her scratch cake recipe. She used it while she was a missionary in Mongolia! It was good. I wrote it down. I lost it. I looked for something kind of like it in an old "potluck" cookbook that my Grandma Esther gave me in 1992. And I found something that I had the ingredients for. Of course, I took SOME liberty and changed a few things, but...it was BETTER than the cake mixes I can now buy for under $1 each! Lots better! AND, I know what's in it! AND, it doesn't take 3 eggs like most cake mixes seem to these days. It actually doesn't take ANY eggs. So, here it is!

Easy Chocolate Cake

1 cup sugar
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup sifted flour (no, I don't have a sifter and didn't sift it!)
3 Tbsp. cocoa - I put in a 1/4 cup.

Mix all this up. The recipe says to do this in a square baking pan. But, I like to MIX, so did it in a bowl. Add:

6 Tbsp. oil - I just put in 1/3 cup
1 Tbsp. vinegar - scared Ryu to death
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup cold water

Add and mix it all up.

I added 1/2 cup or more of chocolate chips.

I suggest greasing and flouring your 9X9 or deep round cake pan. I didn't and...things stuck to the bottom. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. Mine took about 27 minutes.

This recipe was found in "Potluck Potpourri sponsored by Coos County Extension Homemakers Council 1991-1992, and was contributed by Mary Lundy.