IF my daughter's Godmother's baby comes today (due two days ago and just got sent home from the hospital because her contractions weren't progressing), Christa from Baking Outside The Box has brought the perfect recipe to share today, a chocolate cake! My birthday cake every year growing up was chocolate, and in a few years I will be able to teach the kids how to make this cake! I couldn't ask for more. Plus, it looks delicious! I've included the printable version at the end, with the prep time including the cooling time before frosting.
Hi, this is Christa from Baking Outside the Box, a blog all about making scratch
baking easier for the home cook. Today I want to share with you a great
recipe I use for teaching my kids about baking.
This chocolate cake is the easiest cake I've ever made, so it is perfect for baking with kids, since they can do most of the steps themselves. It rivals a box mix for speed and simplicity, but it really tastes great.
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cold water
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.
Grease an 8" square casserole dish (for a round cake you can use one 9" cake pan).
Sift the dry ingredients together and stir with a fork until well-mixed. Make three wells in the dry ingredients. Pour the oil into the first well, the vinegar into the second, and the vanilla into the third. Pour the cold water over the top of it all, then stir with a fork until well-blended. Pour into greased pan and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool, then frost.
Frosting:
4 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 ½ Cups Powdered Sugar
dash of salt
2 Tablespoons milk
Cream together the butter, sugar, cocoa and salt until well-mixed. Add the liquid and beat until fluffy. You can do this by hand since it is such a small batch, you really don't need to use a stand mixer for this.
Have some sprinkles handy for the kids to decorate it!
(Baking with Kids) Easy Chocolate Cake -Guest Post from Baking Outside The Box
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup cold water
- Frosting:
- 4 Tablespoons Butter
- 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 ½ Cups Powdered Sugar
- dash of salt
- 2 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease an 8" square casserole dish (for a round cake you can use one 9" cake pan).
- Sift the dry ingredients together and stir with a fork until well-mixed. Make three wells in the dry ingredients. Pour the oil into the first well, the vinegar into the second, and the vanilla into the third. Pour the cold water over the top of it all, then stir with a fork until well-blended. Pour into greased pan and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool, then frost.
- For the frosting:
- Cream together the butter, sugar, cocoa and salt until well-mixed. Add the liquid and beat until fluffy.
Nutrition
Jen W says
The cake had a very dense / chewy texture. Very odd. Also it was a very light brown (I used the 3 tbs of cocoa powder…). Not sure what I did wrong but I baked it with my son and we followed the recipe exactly…
Nancy says
I followed the recipe exactly, including the frosting. The cake was moist and the frosting was good. The cake was not too sweet. Further, I did not need a mixer for the cake batter. Those are the positives. However, the cake had an odd taste by itself. The frosting definitely made it taste better. For the frosting, I added a little more milk to make it less thick and thus, easier to mix and spread. I hope other people have better luck with this recipe. I don't think I will make it again, even though I hoped to make the cake with children.
Bernadette says
Hi Nancy, I am not sure what gave it an odd taste, although to be honest I have never used vinegar in a cake recipe before. This post was written by a friend many years ago, and I've never has a complaint like this before. I'm so sorry this recipe didn't work for you.
Heidi says
This turned out wonderfully! Very rich and moist. I doubled the recipe to make a two layer cake, and everyone loved it! Thank you so much for this recipe--easiest homemade cake recipe I've ever made!
Carrie says
This cake came out so well! My older kids (8 and 11) made this for their Dad's birthday, We doubled the recipe to have 2 - 9in rounds. Love that the cake itself is vegan (we used a vegan frosting). It was one of the best chocolate cakes we have made! We definitely plan to keep the recipe and will make it again!
Becky says
What should you use if you don't have vegetable oil?
Bernadette says
I'm so sorry I missed your question! Canola oil or an equal amount of melted butter would work well. Olive oil would lead to a denser cake.
Natalia says
this is sooo easy and works surprisingly great with gluten free flour. tastes great too! Warning! this cake is very messy, A good way to keep the mess down is to put away the ingredients immediately after you use them.
jenny says
it tasted SO TRASJ
Bernadette says
Hi Jenny, I'm sorry but I don't understand your comment. Could you explain more?