3-Holer Chocolate Cake

Today I decided to try a fairly easy looking recipe with my son. At 5-years-old now, he's at a great age to do some cooking. Of course, for little kids as well as moms like me, an easy recipe for something that's sweet is, well, sweet.

I found a recipe in the June/July 2011 issue of Taste of Home Magazine. I hope they won't mind me sharing it here, as long as I give the magazine credit for it. (Don't sue me) As a bonus, for them, I'll even link to their magazine and recommend it. I do so love this magazine. Taste of Home always has the most delicious recipes. If you want to find this recipe, it's on page 7.

This cake recipe is called "Gaga's Three-Holer." No, it's not sexual and no it's not from Lady Gaga. (behave!) - This recipe is apparently from a 90-year-old woman who was a friend of the Editor-in-Chief of the Taste of Home Magazine.

The recipe includes:

1-1/2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
3 TBSP cocoa, unsweetened
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1 TBSP vinegar
1 cup cold water

For those of us who are cooking challenged, we wonder if you really need to sift the flour since packages now say the flour's "pre-sifted" (for this recipe you DO), we also wonder if canola oil HAS to be used, or can you use any vegetable oil? (I do not know, I bought canola oil to give the recipe a fair shake). I also wondered, how cold does "cold water" have to be? Is it okay right out of the tap from the Cold side or should it be refrigerated-level-cold? Again, no idea. I used a couple ice cubes to get the tap water a bit colder than usual, since I live in Georgia and water straight out of the tap isn't all that cold to begin with.

I also think vinegar is a very odd ingredient for a cake, but Taste of Home editors seem to know what they're doing.

So all that mental trauma out of the way, here's the instructions:

Part 1:

"Measure flour, sugar, cocoa, soda and salt into sifter; sift twice. Sift all into an un-greased 9-inch square baking pan."

Cooking challenged me wonders, "where's my sifter? I remember I had something like that, but I haven't seen it for a long time." Then there's a lot of digging through cabinets and heavy sighing, while my 5-year-old stands helplessly. I wonder if I really really really need to do the sifting. I look at the recipe. "sift twice." Ok, if they say sift twice, they must really mean it. Not that the people who write recipes have much sense of humor. So why would they joke about sifting? They wouldn't. Oh darn. Back into the cabinets. I found one of the spray splatter shields you use for when you cook bacon to keep from being burned. It's clean and not greasy and it's made of out screen material. It should work. It wasn't as easy as using a sifter. I had to push it all through the screen with a spoon and keep working and stirring it, but it worked. Nobody needs to know, unless I blog about it.

I also wonder how it's going to do in an ungreased cake pan. I read the recipe twice. Yep, it says ungreased, so awaaaay we go.

Part 2:

"Make 3 holes; put canola oil in one, vinegar in second and vanilla in third. Pour water over all. Mix with a fork until blended and batter is thin. Bake at 350 for 30 min., no more. Cake is so moist it doesn't need frosting."

Make holes? Is this just a gimmick so the name of the cake will make sense? If it's all getting mixed up together anyway, why would the holes matter? I have no idea. I really don't. But I complied. I don't want it said that I cannot follow rules and directions. I may have even saluted. I'm not sure.

My square pan is 8x8" and the directions say to bake it in a 9" pan. So I figured I needed to bake it at least a little longer, because my cake is going to be thicker/taller than in the recipe. But how much more to bake it? Clearly it's very important not to over-bake it. I decided to give it 4 more minutes.

VERDICT:

It is pretty good. Better once it's completely cooled. It may not be sweet enough for most tastes now. But I like that it's something additive/preservative free and you know there are fresh ingredients in it. Perfect for someone who's allergic to eggs. I like that it's an old fashioned recipe and it was pretty easy. Just get a sifter.