How to Bake Poor Man's Chocolate Cake

In the Depression and war years, when cooking ingredients were scarce, cooks had to be creative enough to find new ways to make old standbys. A common confectionery of those days was Poor Man's Cake. There are many versions of the cake, including a raisin-spice cake and one named Poor Man's Chocolate Cake. Today, the egg-less, milk-free, chocolate cake recipe tastes just as good as a store-bought cake, is easy to bake and is perfect for people with multiple food allergies.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3/8 cup baking cocoa
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp. vinegar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cup cold water
• 9-by-13 inch baking pan
• Sifter
• Large bowl
• Non-stick cooking spray

1. Grease a 9-by-13 inch baking pan or spray it with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle a little flour in the bottom of the pan and tilt the pan lightly from side to side to distribute the flour so that it coats the bottom and sides of the pan.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Sift together, over a large bowl, 3 cups of flour, 3/8 cup of baking cocoa (unsweetened cocoa powder), 2 tsp. of baking soda and 1 tsp. of salt. Make sure the ingredients are thoroughly mixed before adding 2 cups of white sugar.

4. Stir in 3/4 cup of vegetable oil, 2 cups of cold water and 2 Tbsp. of vinegar. Add 2 tsp. of vanilla extract and stir until all the ingredients are completely combined.

5. Pour the batter in the greased baking pan. Bake for approximately 1 hour or until a toothpick of the tines of a fork come out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake.

6. Let the Poor Man's Chocolate cake cool for 20 minutes, at which time you can frost it, serve it with ice cream or just eat it plain.

Tips & Warnings

• As an alternative to dirtying a bowl, you can mix all the ingredients together in the baking pan. Keep in mind, however, that this doesn't allow you to grease the pan before adding the batter.
• It's sometimes difficult to find the correct size measuring cups, especially a 3/8 cup measure. It's helpful to know that 2 Tbsp. is equal to 1/8 of a cup--you can adjust your measurements accordingly.

[FarmerKnows]

on 4/11/2009 Thanks for the tip about 2 Tbsp = 1/8 cup...I was wracking my brain to think if I even had a 1/8 cup measure...lol