Saturday's Something New...Made a Chocolate Pantry Cake

I tried a new recipe for chocolate cake yesterday (Saturday) - this is a busy day chocolate cake or a pantry cake.  You make this with things you already have on hand in your pantry - you don't even use eggs!! The recipe is from Lucinda Scala Quinn's show Mad Hungry (on the Hallmark Channel).

 This was really good.  The frosting recipe is the simple buttercream frosting from Martha Stewart.  I cut the recipe in half for the cake.  If you double the cake recipe, you can keep the full icing recipe as is.  The cake makes only an 8 x 8 size (I used a 9 x 7 pan because that is all I have) so if you double you could probably use a 13 x 9 pan and the full icing recipe.



http://www.marthastewart.com/334278/busy-day-chocolate-cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 cup cold water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In an 8-inch square baking pan, whisk together all-purpose flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, and coarse salt.
2. Make a well in center of flour mixture and add vegetable oil, pure vanilla extract, white vinegar, and cold water. Whisk until well combined. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Variations

To make this recipe as prepared on "Mad Hungry" TV, top your chocolate cake with this Simple Buttercream frosting.

My only variation was that I used a little bit more vanilla extract.  Vanilla extract enhances the flavor of chocolate so I thought I would use just a touch more.  As I wrote above, I also cut the icing recipe in half because you do not need almost three cups of icing for such a small cake.  FYI - the icing recipe calls for unsalted butter and then you add salt.  I used salted butter and did not add anymore salt.  Up to you, but I never buy unsalted butter just because I do not like it.  Even though the claim is to always bake with unsalted, I never do.

Verdict: This was my piece.  Yum!!  I refrigerated the cake for fear that the icing would melt/separate.  I recommend pulling the cake out ahead of time to allow the icing to soften back up before serving but it stores fine in the fridge.