Wacky Cake with Creamy White Frosting

Remember birthday cake number 2 for our birthday girl?

As promised, here is the recipe!

A few comments first, though.  

...because I'm all about explaining things :)

I love an involved recipe as much as the next girl.  

I love to make fancy, pretty food.

I love using my Kitchen Aid mixer.

But, sometimes I want to make something fast and easy and delicious!

This Wacky Cake fits the bill!  

I'm sure there are plenty of recipes for Wacky Cake (some people call it Crazy Cake), but this is the recipe I got from my mom!

The reason that it's wacky (or crazy) is because there aren't any eggs in it!

Here's how I do it:

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, salt, cocoa, baking soda, and flour.

In a small bowl (or liquid measuring cup), combine the vanilla, water, vinegar, and oil.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until it's fairly smooth.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.

This cake is rich and moist with a perfect texture...not too light, not too dense.  

You can frost it with any frosting you want!  Heck, you could even sprinkle it with powdered sugar!

Obviously you should let the cake cool before you frost it.  Or not.  Maybe you like melted frosting ;)

My favorite frosting to use is a recipe I got from my friend, Shannon, several years ago!  This is Shannon of the Easiest Popsicles, so you know this is a winner.

I've made this with a hand held mixer before, but you have to cream it for a decent amount of time, so if you have a stand mixer, you should use that.

Here's how I do it!

Cream the butter, shortening, and sugar.  Cream it well.  And, yes, this is regular sugar.  Be sure to really cream it.  You don't want it to still be grainy.  This will take a couple of minutes.

Add 3 tablespoons of flour, 1 at a time.  Cream it each time until the flour is well incorporated.

Add the room temperature milk (I put mine in the microwave for 30 seconds and it was fine) and vanilla.  Beat well.

This will look creepy and curdled at first, but stick with it!  It will come together and be creamy and silky.  This takes a few minutes.

Frost and enjoy!

You can even toss some sprinkles and flags on there that your mom got you from the Target clearance area to birthday things up a bit!

My mom wasn't joking when she said it is a real family favorite!  Our friends gobbled it up.  There was one courtesy piece left that I ate before bed :)

And no offense to the Pioneer Woman, but I think I liked this cake a little better than hers.  There's a lot to be said about comfort food that you ate when you were little!

So, get wacky and make a cake!