Wacky Cake & December Birthdays
Happy Birthday to me! It's been quite a year of growth, and it's gone by so quickly (which I credit to the 14 month-old running around my house.) And yes, it's literally days before Christmas that I'm posting this because I am lucky to be in the December Birthday Club. Growing up, it was always "Poor thing - must be hard to have your birthday that close to Christmas." Guys, it's actually really awesome since every year I had my birthday off for Winter Break, in addition to it being the most wonderful time of year. If you have parents like I do, every birthday was special since they were always careful to separate Christmas and birthday parties. Yes, it's a little crazy as an adult trying to squeeze in the celebration with everything else going on, but I wouldn't have it any other way. And since I'm even more into Christmas this year, thanks again to the 14 month-old in my life, I topped this year's birthday cake with a few festive decorations because THAT, my friends, is the beauty of having your birthday so close to Christmas - you can totally combine the two if you want to, but only if you want to ;).
I promised you a recipe, and this one you'll want to hold on to. This is my Great-Aunt Wanda's Wacky Cake recipe, and it's so easy that you can literally mix it in the cake pan (hence the reason why it's so wacky)! We make it often for birthdays in my family, but it's also great to bring to any gathering since it's so simple. This recipe comes with a warning and a very funny anecdote: The first (and only) time my dad made this for my mom's birthday when they were freshly married, he followed all of the directions and then never stirred the ingredients together - just baked as is! So please, please remember to stir everything together :). Also, truly hilarious that on the original recipe card my grandmother wrote this cake recipe was "foolproof."
Ingredients
2 2/3 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups of sugar
5 tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 stick melted unsalted butter
2 cups cold water
Icing
1 stick melted unsalted butter
1 lb powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 350*.
Mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt directly in your cake pan. Once thoroughly combined, make three indentions (or "holes") in your dry ingredient mixture.
Put 2 T. white vinegar in one hole, 1 1/2 t. vanilla in one hole, and 1 stick melted better in one hole. Pour 2 cups cold water over all. Mix well, and bake at 350* for 25 min.
Icing
Melt 1 stick unsalted butter. Pour over 1 lb powdered sugar and 2 T. cocoa powder (I omitted the cocoa for my snowy cake's look, but you can't beat chocolate cake with chocolate icing!). Mix with electric mixer, and slowly add in 1/4 cup of milk until consistency is not too thick or thin.
