Crazy Cake Recipe

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My new favorite chocolate cake! Super tender and moist and ultra chocolate-y. No milk, butter, or eggs!

My new favorite chocolate cake! Super tender and moist and ultra chocolate-y.

Yes, this is another chocolate cake recipe in less than a week from the last one. I wish I could say I’m sorry for sharing another chocolate overload today with you today, but I’m just not. I mean, just look at it!

Can’t you just see how moist and tender the crumb is?? Chocolate heaven, my friends.

Plus, this cake has a kind of funny story to go with it. And food is always better with a little history, am I right?!

My new favorite chocolate cake! Super tender and moist and ultra chocolate-y.

You probably know it best as Crazy Cake. Which is a cake well known for its Great Depression origins, needing no butter, eggs, or milk to make.

But I actually discovered this cake as I was sifting through Amish recipes. We recently discovered quite a bit of Pennsylvania Dutch in my husband’s family ancestry, so we thought it would be fun to start making some recipes that have Pennsylvania Dutch origins to try and teach our kids a little about their heritage.

Of course, I immediately recognized the “Amish Chocolate Cake” recipe as Crazy Cake’s identical twin. So call it whatever you want– Crazy Cake, Amish Chocolate Cake. It’s all the same. And it’s all sooooo good.

When it comes to the frosting, you’ve got options.

The original recipes I found were without frosting at all. And this cake is actually very good on its own. Really, it’s so moist that adding frosting is almost unnecessary. We ate it warm topped with a little whipped cream when we made it with the kids. And it was fantastic.

But what kind of a dessert blogger would I be if I let something like “unnecessary” get in the way of my frosting a cake!?

So allow me to present you with some options:

As for me? I cheated a little. I was running short on time getting this cake photographed, so I whipped a can of chocolate frosting into a fluffy frenzy and slathered it on top. Did you know you could do that?? It’s one of my favorite little “real life” tips.

Hey, sometimes you just don’t have time to make it from scratch. And you know what? That’s okay!

My new favorite chocolate cake! Super tender and moist and ultra chocolate-y.

Enjoy!

My new favorite chocolate cake! Super tender and moist and ultra chocolate-y.

Crazy Cake

Yield: 16

My new favorite chocolate cake! Super tender and moist and ultra chocolate-y.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 5 tablespoons cocoa
  • 2 heaping teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 scant cup cooking oil
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
  • 2 cups cold water
  • Optional: chocolate frosting (see links in post)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish by spraying it with nonstick cook spray.
  2. Mix together dry ingredients: sugar, flour, salt, cocoa powder, and baking soda.
  3. Make a well in the middle and add the oil, vanilla, vinegar, and cold water. Whisk together until smooth batter forms.
  4. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cake passes the toothpick test. Serve warm or let cool before frosting.

More from the chocolate cake archives!

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

This old fashioned chocolate cake was one of the first from-scratch cakes I ever made. It's super moist and has a rich chocolate flavor. Top it with chocolate ganache or this yummy 1-minute frosting!

The Best Doctored Up Chocolate Cake Mix Cake

Flourless Chocolate Cake

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38 thoughts on “Crazy Cake Recipe”

  1. This looks absolutely incredible. Measuring dry ingredients is so annoying, especially when I have to convert from cups to grams to weigh my ingredients because the recipe doesn’t include that info. So much easier to just dump premeasured powdered into a bowl and get mixing. I haven’t tried this recipe. I can’t wait.

  2. I’ve been looking for a “doctored up” cake mix recipe, so I’m really happy you posted this! Cake mixes are so much more convenient and doctoring them up so they taste homemade is a winner for sure. Pinning this!

  3. Okay, this looks really good, but the recipe doesn’t say what kind of cake pan or pans to use. The picture looks like an individual little four layer cake so I can’t go by the picture.

    • It just says bake according to the directions on the cake mix box- that’s where you’ll find the cake pan sizes and baking times ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. Is there a step missing? There is nothing after the number 10……

    Looks absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS!!!!

  5. We are getting close to birthday season at our house… and I think this will end up making at least one appearance… looks amazing! I have one Martha Stewart chocolate cupcakes recipe from scratch that I like… but I always love a good doctored cake mix. Hard to beat!

  6. Hello chocolate goodness! I am all about doctored up cake mixes too. I am so glad to hear you say that you prefer these over scratch cakes. No offense scratch cake lovers, but no other cake even comes close to a cake mix that has been doctored up. Love the cute little cake too!!!

    • 2 – 9″ rounds (but I cut smaller circles out of the center of the cake, so it would fit in to my frame easily). I split each layer into two, which is 4 layers.

  7. Hey Ashton! Great recipe, thanks for sharing! I’m totally with you on the whole from scratch/box cake mix thing. I would try for a LONG time to make cakes from scratch, but none of them were as good as the box! So I eventually just stopped trying, but this recipe sounds like something I would be interested in giving a shot.

    Quick question though: is there anything special you like to do for flavors other than chocolate? I’m assuming you just get the corresponding flavor of pudding and everything else is the same, right? What about a yellow cake? Thanks!

  8. Why do you use Devil’s food cake rather than a chocolate cake mix? Just wondering because I’ve never tasted Devil’s food and want to make sure this cake is really chocolately. Thanks!

    • It’s my favorite ๐Ÿ™‚ I don’t know why there’s even a difference at all, but I think it’s moister and has a better flavor. A Wilton instructor turned me on to it several years ago, and it’s the only one I’ve used since!

  9. Have you tried Jell-O Devil’s Food Pudding? That’s my faaaavorite, I bet you’d love that if you love Devil’s Food cake!

  10. Hi!
    This recipe and your zebra cupcake recipe are pretty similar besides the chocolate milk.
    Which version do you prefer.
    And what’s the difference in the outcome?
    Thanks ๐Ÿ™‚

    • They’re the exact same recipe ๐Ÿ™‚ I just re-published it in a way that I thought people would be more receptive to. I like using chocolate milk, but I changed it for this recipe because people don’t usually have it on hand. Either way, it’s really great.

  11. Just discovered your blog and am enjoying browsing. I have a very similar recipe which my family calls the “OMG Chocolate Cake” because it’s so good. I haven’t made it since the Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, and Duncan Hines downsized the volume of their cake mixes by 3 oz. because I’ve been afraid it won’t come out as well. It sounds like you’ve made your cake both before and after the decrease by the cake manufacturers. Have you noticed a difference?

  12. I love to bake and most of the time the homemade stuff is better than packaged. But I agree with you on the chocolate cake, heck, I even like yellow boxed cakes better. I keep trying different recipes with cake flour, regular flour, blah blah but the texture just never comes out at good and as for the flavor, you can add a variety of extracts and goodies to disguise the fact that it’s a box.

  13. So I just made this cake but I’m curious as 2 what other icing do you use whenever u don’t use this chocolate buttercream one? I’m trying 2 decide & I just can’t make up my mind. I’ve spent Hours on ur site & I know u like things that r different. But just wondering if u have another icing recipe that u use when sum1 doesn’t really want the chocolate on chocolate. NE way, I Luv Everything about ur site so far! & I CANNOT Wait until morning, when I frost the cake and actually get 2 sit down & dive N2 my chocolate cake!! Thanks a million 4 sharing ur vast array of recipes & knowledge on desserts with us!!

  14. Just mixed it & put it in the oven. ย My mix was like a blob-I had to spread it in the pans. ย Hopefully it will be okay.

  15. It was delicious! ย This will be my go-to chocolate cake. ย Both the cake & frosting were easy to make as well.

  16. The cake & frosting were so easy to make. I was nervous about how it would turn out b/c of its blob-like consistency. It was delicious. Super moist & chocolatey.ย 

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