Greg celebrated a birthday shortly after we started dating in 1989. I made him a Wacky Cake.
The ritual in our family goes something like this:
“What type of cake do you want for your birthday?”
“A Wacky Cake.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to try something new and different?”
“Oh no, I want a Wacky Cake.”
That conversation has taken place 37 (16 + 12 + 9) times since 1989. OK, the kids couldn’t really request a Wacky Cake when they were 1 but I’m sure they were asking for it by the time their second birthday rolled around.
Wacky Cake is the official name of this recipe as it appeared in Bon Appetit some time in the 80′s. The original recipe directed that you make the entire thing in the pan the cake is baked in. I prefer to mix my ingredients in a bowl and then pour the batter into a 9 inch cake pan lined with parchment paper on the bottom. The original recipe cooled the cake completely in the pan and then poured the icing on top in the pan. I prefer to set the cake on a plate and pour the icing on top so it spreads itself just over the edge of the sides of the cake.
Wacky Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Add remaining incredients. Stir batter until well mixed, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour batter into a 9 inch cake pan lined with parchment paper. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cake 5 minutes in pan and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Icing
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp Grand Marnier (original recipe called for 1 tsp of vanilla, the GM is much yummier!)
Combine first 4 ingredients in small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir until cool, about 5 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon Grand Marnier and mix well. Pour icing over cake. Let cool until set.
OHMYGOSH.. we made this cake in my childhood, I loved the flavor of it. We called it Crazy cake. I have to print this out because I don’t know that I still have that recipe. Yum, thanks for the memories!
The Girly is darling!! Nine looks good on her!
mmmmmm, wacky is goood and so is being nine!
What a pretty young lady you have there Kathy! Happy birthday to her and many mooooore!
Happy birthday, birthday girl!
I’m going to have to try wacky cake right away. Perfect for our wee egg allergic girl. I am sure I have tried something similar, but Grand Marnier just sounds so much more delicious. Maybe I could just try that without the cake?!
happy birthday! ^-^
i don’t know the cake, but i’ll surely give this one a try – it sounds very “chocolad-ish”… yummy!
Nine – wow.
Well, now. I’m definitely going to have to try this cake.
And Happy Birthday!!! Love that smile!
What a great picture, Kathy! The cake looks gooey delicious. When I was growing up we had a recipe for something called Goofy cake that we all loved. My mom always said it was Goofy because it didn’t have eggs. Well, Wacky cake doesn’t have eggs either – must be yummy.
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Happy 9th, Leil. My sewing student is 9 – it’s a nice age.
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Could you guys be any more fun? (No.)
What a lovely daughter you have! I want to be adopted by any family that 1) encourages cake for birthdays and 2) has a recipe for anything called “wacky.”
oooh yum. between you and jan, i think my “hips won’t lie” … er,
your daughter and mine are almost twin birthdays. thanks for YOUR lovely blog. it inspires me each time i read it.
We have Wacky cake for every birthday at our house, and now it’s the required “1st night dessert” when my son is home from University. For the frosting, I use powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar and buttermilk instead of regular milk.
This recipe has some of my favourite ingredients. It must taste wonderful. Thanks for sharing and happy birthday to your lovely daughter.
Oh, YUM!!!
Happy B-day, too! (a little late)
This is the recipe for the first cake I ever baked from scratch in my home ec class in middle school. I lost the recipe and have thought about it many times since then. Thanks for posting it!!!
We had a cookbook for kids when we were little and it had the Wacky Cake recipe in it and my sister liked to make it now and then. I have vivid memories of one year for my Dad’s birthday when she was probably 10 and she made her wacky cake and somehow ended up dropping it on the floor. She was pissed. I can still smell that Wacky Cake.
Your daughter is just beautiful — I love her hair!
That cake looks delicious, totally scrummy, do you have the receipe in grammes measurements for us British readers please ?!
Hi Weirdbunny, I’m going to have to plead true ignorance on converting recipes. I googled for some easy conversion calculators only to visit sites that really made absolutely no sense to me. Can’t someone write a program that just reads a post and convert it for goodness sakes?! So, if any British friends have done this conversion please pass along the results and I’ll post them.
Thanks for posting this recipe. I made it this weekend for Bea’s half birthday and it was a big hit. And it is so incredibly easy that I can happily say it will become a tradition over here as well. Three cheers for wacky cake! (though I don’t see much wacky about it – cept that it’s so easy)
I love your site and have been enjoying watching it take on life. Your work is beautiful and I find visiting your site restful and inspiring. I wanted you to know that Forrest and I made a wacky cake for my birthday. Thanks for the recipe!
This looks delicious. I love the idea of having the same cake every year. What a nice tradition, and what a great name!!!! I only had ice cream for my bday (Christmas Eve), maybe I will try a wacky cake next week, after the overly stuffed tummies have digested all of the latest goodies! Thanks for the recipe!
[...] Wacky cake recipe here. [...]
[...] Since I was finally going to crack open In the Sweet Kitchen, it seemed like the most logical choice would be to start with an easy recipe. All-in-the-Pan Chewy Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Butter Icing was the perfect confidence builder. The name pretty much says it all: you mix the batter up right in the baking dish and then it’s off to the races. [Kathy posted a link to her family's favorite birthday cake, which is essentially the same cake, except it includes a poured icing rather than a buttercream.] The resulting cake was every bit as presentable as one from a mix (high standards, I know), and even more delicious. It’s not a fancy, decadent dessert, but it is a tasty treat and it did strike me as the kind of thing you’re mom might give you as an extra special after-school snack. Maybe that’s why I felt the need to have a piece at around three every afternoon until it was gone, I don’t know. Oh, and this would also be a good one to whip up if you were bringing a meal to a friend, since you could mix and bake it in one of those disposable pans and send it on its merry way. [...]
O.K. so this is also one of our families favorites. I’ve made it for years. Another way I make it cause it’s sooo moist (we eat it w/out frosting!) is to just put ice cream on it or whipped topping. Or another of my favorites is to spoon Cherry Pie Filling on top of the cake and then add either ice cream or something like cool whip! Yum, it’s like an easy version of Black Forest Cake.
O.K. enough! I just ate lunch… I’m not hungry, I’m not hungry!
Yum Jean! those variations sound fabulous. I agree, it really is the most moist cake I’ve ever eaten and it’s so darn easy to make!