Cockeyed Cake

I have a box of my mom’s things in my room. Letters and things like that, mostly. In amongst the letters and photos and old address books, I recently found a little paperback cookbook that I remember when I was a kid, “The I Hate to Cook Book”, which is full of really easy recipes. I think I’ve only ever made one, “Cockeyed Cake”. We received a copy of the cookbook when we got married, from our friend Joyce, who was one of our roommates in Fairbanks, Alaska. Sadly, that cookbook was destroyed when our stupid pipes from the shower leaked into our kitchen, which we’ve discussed here before.

It’s pretty much the easiest chocolate cake recipe I’ve ever made, with the possible exception of a mix. And with a mix, you usually have the risk of egg shells in your cake. This recipe is eggless, you get all of the moistness from vegetable oil. I’m not sure why it’s called “Cockeyed Cake”. When I was a kid I thought it was because you make a little cockeyed face in the pan, with two eyes and a mouth. Now I just wonder if it’s a way of saying that it’s a wacky recipe, what with the no eggs, and the use of vinegar.

The recipe makes one layer of cake. Just a little cake to pull out if you have company or something. Like if the Costanzas come over, and you know you’d better serve cake after dinner. Or perhaps you just want some chocolate in the middle of the afternoon. If you keep cocoa powder in your house, you probably have the ingredients in your pantry (Oh, to have a pantry! Townhouse living is spatially challenged). I kind of remember our elementary school making a cake that was very similar, and because it was so moist, some kids liked to smash it up into a ball and throw it at people in the cafeteria. I didn’t do that, because I’d prefer to eat my chocolate, and besides, I was always a good girl, not the one to throw things at school. When I was growing up, we didn’t frost it. We just sprinkled it with powdered sugar and ate it that way, which is how they served it at school. I don’t know if I could get away with that around here. Maya loves frosting, and while Ted isn’t as much of a frosting fan as her, he loves things to be extra chocolatey. So on Sunday I decided to make the cake, and I wanted Maya to make it with me. Relive my childhood and all of that. I’ll admit, it’s a little messy mixing the ingredients in the pan. I think perhaps I’d rather use a bowl. But I don’t remember it being messy when I was a kid. I don’t know if that’s because I was more adept, we had a bigger pan, or I just didn’t care about messes, because, duh, I was a kid.

Next time you have a craving for some chocolate cake, just know you could be eating this pretty darned quickly. And if you have some chocolate frosting laying around, this is a perfectly good way to eat that, too.

Cockeyed Cake
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sifted flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup cold water

Directions:

Sift flour, then resift into greased baking pan along with the cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt. Make 3 holes in the mixture, preferably (by me) in the shape of a face.
Pour oil in one, vinegar in one, and vanilla in the third. Pour cold water over all. Beat until nearly smooth and no flour shows.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Frost or dust with powdered sugar when it’s completely cool. That may be the hardest part, waiting for it to cool so you can frost it. Maybe that’s why we didn’t bother when I was growing up.

And now, prepare yourself for the worst food pic ever. Or maybe not ever, but it’s not good. But it’s what I have, and I don’t feel like one should post a recipe without a photo, esp if that recipe is for cake, right? Here goes.