Ok guys if this isn’t an easy cake, I don’t know which is. I came upon this recipe at King Arthur’s Baking Banter blog and when I saw the recipe, I thought that this is impossible. I have baked many cakes in my life; chocolate cakes, lemon cakes, orange cakes, yogurt cakes, banana cakes you name it. Some of them were successful some of them a total failure. Eventually, I subsided to my favorite recipe for chocolate cake which by the way you can find here. I believe this cake is the best I have ever made texture wise and taste wise. But there is a big but in here. This cake requires time and many bowls and kitchen utensils. It is not the cake that you can make on a crazy, hectic weekday evening. Nevertheless, it is definitely worth the time and effort.
So, when I saw this cake I thought that I should give it a try more as an experiment, rather than anything else. And I did. And it worked. And the cake was very good and very moist. I couldn’t believe it. If your children are giving you a hard time wanting something sweet or you expect suddenly people for a visit, or you want something sweet and you cannot wait too much or work as hard in the kitchen, do it. It is great and remains great the next day too.
Extremely Easy Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
¼ cup cocoa
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp espresso powder (I didn’t put this I added ½ tsp cocoa)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp vinegar (Did you expect that? I didn’t)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water (What about that? Cold water, who could imagine)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 175° C.
In the mixer’s bowl add all the dry ingredients and whisk just until incorporated. Make three wells and put the vanilla, the vinegar and vegetable oil in each one of them. On top put the cold water and mix until everything is incorporated.
Butter and flour generously a spring form or a round pan with 20cm to 22cm diameter. Pour the batter in the pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the toothpick comes out moist but without crumbs. Let rest for 5 minutes and then serve it. Imagine the batter was ready even before the oven was preheated. Kali Orexi!