Recipe - Wacky Cake

This is the cake that we make for all our family gatherings and parties, because it’s easy and it holds for days. It’s not the chocolatiest cake but it makes up for that by sheer ease of preparation. Also, until you absolutely cover it in frosting, which I highly recommend doing because buttercream is yummy, its v.. ve.. vvvee.. (gimme a second, I’ll get there I promise) ..VEGAN! *shudder*  It’s also therefore suitable for those with lactose intolerance as long as, again, you don’t put the icing on. Servings: Well now that depends on how much cake you can eat in one sitting, but seriously though, this makes a decent amount of cake it should feed about 10Preparation time; 5 minutes, Cooking time: 45 minutes. Oven temperature; 180c.Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 6 Tablespoons cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups cold water

Equipment

• Baking tray (9” by 11” by 1”)
• Fork
• Cup measure
• Tablespoon
• Teaspoon

Method;

1. Sift the dry ingredients (hint: everything that’s not vanilla, oil, water or vinegar) into the cake pan.
2. Mix them up with the fork a bit.
3. Make 3 holes in the mixture (I generally push the mix out of the way until you scrape the bottom of the pan).
4. Put the vinegar and the vanilla in one, the oil in the second, and the water in the third. (Don’t worry if they overflow the holes a bit when you add them, you’re about to mix it anyway.)
5. Mix it all well with a fork. (See, didn’t I tell you you’d be mixing it?)
6. Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife you stick in it comes out clean.
7. Frost with buttercream unless you really don’t want to

Buttercream Frosting

This is really easy. The only problem I have with frosting is accidentally making too much to the extent where I have thought I didn’t have enough and ended up serving my family cake that was an inch cake, an inch frosting. Needless to say my 4 year old cousin almost had a conniption. You can also add flavourings or colorants as you want and if you need more or less frosting, as long as you keep it in the proportions listed below, it’ll work grand.Prep time: 5 minutesIngredients

• 1 Cup butter (slightly soft)
• 2 Cups icing sugar

Equipment

• A reasonable sized bowl
• A whisk/fork/spatula

Method:Put the butter and sugar in the bowl

1. Mix it together until its well combined
2. Apply to cake, cupcakes, brownies, sad friend or wherever else your gonna put it

If you’re interested in passing on cooking tips, shopping recommendations or full recipes so your fellow students don’t have to eat pasta 5 days a week (or to at least make the pasta tastier) throw me an email at food@uccexpress.ie.