Not-So-Crazy Chocolate Cake

I’d heard of Crazy Cake before--also called Wacky or Depression Cake. I’d even made it long ago, but somehow, I raised a family of cake haters, so we hardly ever have cake. Still, I was familiar enough with the typical recipe to know that it had no eggs, no milk, and no butter--things that were hard to come by during the Depression. 

Imagine my surprise when Grandma’s recipe for “Crazy Chocolate Cake” contained two of those off-limit ingredients. Also weird--it didn’t call for vinegar, another trademark ingredient of traditional Crazy or Wacky Cake. The only thing that seemed at all crazy about Grandma’s recipe was that the ingredients were placed in a bowl in order--no stirring allowed--until the last ingredient--hot water--was added. 

Confused, but willing to give it a go, I went ahead and made the recipe, but since I’m a stickler for tradition, I renamed the thing in my head. And so, here’s . . . 

How to make Not-So-Crazy Chocolate Cake. 

As instructed, I added the ingredients to a bowl in the order stated.

I was given two options for the amount of cocoa, but I stuck with the lowest amount.  The strangest part of the whole process was plopping in the shortening without beating it up. 

I sifted the flour over the top of everything.  

Next, I boiled water in a kettle and added half a cup. 

Then the beaters came out. 

As I suspected, it took a couple of minutes to fully incorporate the shortening into the batter, which was thicker than I expected. 

There was no pan size listed, so I took a guess and spread the batter into a 9 x 9. Instead of baking it at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, which seemed far too hot and too long, I placed the pan into a 350-degree oven and set the timer for 35 minutes.  

When the cake came out, it was hugely domed, which made me wonder if all that beating had been too much or if the pan had been too small. 

Also, the corners looked overdone. I couldn't imagine what kind of burnt, curling-stone-of-a cake I would have ended up with if I’d followed the original baking instructions. 

There was no recipe for a frosting, so I did a little whipped ganache and spread it on. The result looked like way too much cake and not enough frosting.

The verdict

Let’s just say, this cake did not increase my children’s desire to eat cake ever again. Even I, who usually like the stuff, found this one dry and much in need of ice cream to wash it down. 

So then, I was curious. How would the original Crazy Cake match up? Google provided me with multiple sources for what was basically the same recipe. Here’s the one I used because she included instructions for an icing that contained none of the off-limit ingredients. I present you with the One and True Crazy Cake. 

You can actually see how moist it is. Even my husband, who is not a fan of cake, went back for more. And the chocolatey flavor only got better the next day.  

I’m not sure if Grandma is the one who fiddled with the original Crazy Cake recipe or if someone else in town did it. But people, let this be a lesson: messing with perfection is never a good idea. 

No downloadable recipe card? That’s because Not-So-Crazy Chocolate Cake is not going into my box. I wouldn't recommend that it go in yours either. Just head to this recipe, or this one for a 9 x 13-inch version, and have yourself some really good Crazy Cake.