Sweethearts Candy Blog's

I neglected to offer a recipe of the month for February and the month is almost over. So here it is, an egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free chocolate cake. I've tried this before and it is delicious, esp. served warm.

This cake recipe comes from one of my daughter's "American Girl" books about Molly, the WWII-era American Girl.

Due to butter and egg rations during the war, the book offers this recipe for what they call "Wacky Cake." It's named this way because of the unusual way that it's mixed, not because of the ingredients.

This would be fun to make with a child, (as I plan to do later today). If you wanted to make the recipe gluten-free, you could substitute non-wheat flours. Any gluten-free readers want to chime in on your preferred wheat-free, nut-free flours?

Here's the recipe: Nut-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake (Wacky Cake)

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups flour (substitute wheat-free flour if you like)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder (I use Hershey's)
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.

Measure your dry ingredients into the pan and use a whisk to blend them together.

Use a spoon to make 1 large crater and 2 small craters in the dry mix.

Pour vegetable oil into the large crater. Pour vinegar into one of the small craters. Pour vanilla extract into the other small crater. Pour water into the pan.

Using a wooden spoon, gently mix everything together until you can see only a few streaks of flour.

Bake cake about 30 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. (Tip: always under bake and check it for doneness--this is a lot better if it's not too "dried out.")

Cool the cake completely and dust with confectioner's sugar. If you like, serve it with ice cream, whipped cream, dairy-free whipped topping or other dairy-free extras.