Oh, yum! I love the Mexican Chocolate flavor with the hint of cinnamon especially! And I like that the recipes make a smaller cake rather than the 9x13 size. I'll bet that these recipes will freeze well too.

Thanks, Sue!
Teresa

Thanks for posting these! I foresee cake in my immediate future:)

Tracey

It's such a coincidence to see these recipes today. Lucinda Scala Quinn on her show Mad Hungry today did a variation of the Chocolate one and called it Busy Day Chocolate Cake. I'd never seen the recipe before and now to see it twice in one day. :)

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.

Thank you! I've only ever seen the chocolate versions of these before. I'll definitely try some of the others.

As I said in the original post, I only remember trying the chocolate flavored cakes. Please let me know if you try any of the other flavors. I'm curious as to how they'll turn out.

I will be copying and pasting and formatting into a loose leaf recipe book for my grand daughter who will be moving into her first college apartment in the fall! I may even buy a couple of cake pans to go with.

Thanks for the recipes. I'm familiar with a few of them and glad to add more to the snack-cake folder.

This is one I came up with to serve to hubby's diabetic family members when they pop-in on the spur of the moment and I need a quick treat for them. I haven't made it in awhile, but I would now substitute 1/4 c. (possibly up to 1/2 c.) flour with High Maize Resistant Starch to increase the fiber. I'm also using more Low-Glycemic Palm Sugar these days and need to try the recipe using it... -Grainlady

WACKY CAKE (Chocolate or Spice)

1-1/2 c. soft white whole wheat flour or spelt flour
1 t. soda
1/2 t. salt
3 T. cocoa powder (omit for spice cake)
1 T. vinegar
2 t. vanilla
5 T. butter, melted
2/3 c. agave nectar
1/3 c. cold water

Mix ingredients in an 8-inch square pan in this order:
-Combine all dry ingredients and mix well.
-Make 3 holes evenly spaced apart in dry ingredients.
-In the first hole, put the vinegar; in second hole - vanilla; and the third hole - melted butter.
-Mix agave nectar and water together and pour over all the ingredients in the pan.
-Mix well using a dinner fork (be sure no dry ingredients remain in corners).
-Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for 30-35 minutes. [I bake it in my Sharp Convection/Microwave Oven - 325-degrees - low-mix bake - 12-15 minutes.]
-For spice cake - omit cocoa and add 1/2 t. Penzeys Cake Spice (which is a mix of China cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves).
-Cut the cake into 16-pieces - one piece = one serving.

Interesting recipes. Thanks for sharing. Glad to have a recipe for a small cake.
But, don't they stick to the pan???

Thank you Sue for these recipes. They sound very easy and we all need easy somedays.

Karen

Grainlady,

How did that low-glycemic cake turn out? We're watching our sugar intake too and your cake sounds yummy!

gardengrl-

I saw your post late this afternoon and quickly made the cake using these ingredients:

1-1/4 c. Irish Whole Meal Flour (King Arthur product - leftover from St. Patrick's Day baking)
1/4 c. High Maize Resistant Starch
1 t. soda
1/2 t. salt
3 T. Hershey's 100% Cacao Special Dark Cocoa
1 T. vinegar
2 t. vanilla (sometimes I use almond extract)
3 T. melted butter
2 T. melted coconut oil
1/2 c. agave nectar (that's a reduced amount from the original recipe)
1/2 c. water

I like to mix the cake in a bowl, instead of in the pan. I think I can do a better job in a bowl using a Danish Dough Whisk - so that's always an option. I spray the pan with cooking spray. The cake was light and tender and baked in 12-minutes in the Sharp Convection/Microwave Oven - Low-Mix Bake - 325-degrees F. We dusted it with a little powdered sugar and served it with some fresh fruit. Hubby liked it, but he always likes this cake; and thought it would be good with some unsweetened coconut, chopped pecans, and mini-chocolate chips on the top.... Well, who wouldn't???? (LOL).

-Grainlady

Murphy, the cakes usually don't stick to the pan. If you look at all the recipes, there's quite a bit of oil in them. You can always do what Grainlady did today: mix the batter in a separate bowl and spray the pan with cooking spray. I'm not sure if you could plop the entire cake out of the pan easily, but individual pieces are easy to get out with a spatula.

Grainlady, how funny! I agree -- chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut. Those would make almost anything taste better.

I'm going to have a painter at my home for + or - 3 weeks. I'm going to use these cakes for afternoon snack. Should make for a more happy painter. He's a one-man show and the job includes the ceilings. OMG, this is going to be ......

Teresa Nc7, I tried the Mexican chocolate cake, cut the sugar in half for the cake. The glaze was sweet enough so you don't miss the full amount of sugar in the cake. Next time I will mix the dry ingredients in a bowl before putting it in the pan. You won't have to deal with the corners of the pan when mixing with a fork.

It's very good on it's own and I'm sure with ice cream it would be downright sinful. I'm thinking Mango sorbet might taste good with it. Oh.....the possibilities!

Thanks Shambo, this size cake is perfect.

jude

Thanks for reporting back, Jude! I was wondering about cutting the amount of sugar.

Teresa

Yes, Jude, thanks for reporting back.

I'm reporting back too. I made the lemon cake late this afternoon. In fact, I made it while fixing dinner. It was so easy to put together. All in all, it was a success. The cake itself was fine, but I think the lemon syrup had too much granulated sugar. It didn't dissolve and crystallized on top of the cake.

Next time, I'll use only 1/3 cup granulated sugar and heat the lemon juice & sugar either on the stove or in the microwave, stirring to make sure the sugar dissolves properly. Also, I'd eliminate putting the cake back in the oven after pouring on the syrup. And I'd poke holes in the warm cake before pouring the syrup on it.

But the good news is that my husband really liked the cake, and, in spite of the sugar crystals, it had a nice, mild lemon flavor. The best part is that it was so easy and a perfect size for just the two of us.

Must report that the Mocha Chocolate Cake was outstanding!!!
Mixed in bowl (too scared to try to mix in pan) Turned out delicious. wonder if the icing recipe came about before the invention of hand mixers?....mixing 3 Tbls of butter into 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar was more than my old arms and hand could handle, wooden spoon or not! Plugged in that small electric mixer and voila! icing in a minute.
Recipe just right to share with neighbor.
Thanks again for sharing with us.
Next on the menu, Lemon.

What is the purpose of the cornstarch in these recipes?? I understand that cornstarch isn't exactly a healthy thing to consume. True?

beachlily-

The cornstarch helps "lighten" the cake and helps off-set the amount of gluten in the all-purpose flour commonly used in these recipes. A common substitute for cake flour is 1-3/4 c. all-purpose flour and 1/4 c. cornstarch. For a tender cake pick a low-protein flour like cake flour, pastry flour, and Southern bleached all-purpose flour (White Lily, Martha White, Gladiola, Red Band).

Because these snack cakes don't incorporate traditional shortened cake-making methods (creaming the fat with the sugar) to help tenderize the crumb, they tend to get a little heavy and dried-out by day two. And the recipes without eggs are missing a leavening and emulsifying agent.

In my recipe I incorporated High Maize Resistant Starch which is different from cornstarch, but it also lightens the cake since it's gluten-free. High Maize Resistant Starch is a prebiotic high-fiber starch with some impressive health benefits. One and one-half tablespoons of High Maize contains 6-grams of non-soluble dietary fiber.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: About Resistant Starch

Thanks Grainlady! I have White Lily in the cupboard. I'll use that.

I believe I'm going to mix up the Mexican Chocolate Cake this afternoon. Sounds so good!

I think the Mexican chocolate cake is next for me too. We're down to the last two pieces of the lemon cake. I never make desserts, especially cakes because I think they're too much trouble and most recipes make way too much. I'm having fun revisiting this type of cake.

I made the lemon cake several days ago using two small Meyer lemons, with seeds removed, pureed with the sugar in place of the lemon zest. I cut back on the milk by 2T to compensate for the lemon juice but I think the entire amount of milk would be fine. I cut the sugar in the glaze back to a scant half cup and heated it in the microwave until the sugar was dissolved.

We both thought this was very good. I served it twice with fresh strawberries and we'll have the last two pieces tonight with frozen, thawed, sweet cherries.

I think the Mexican chocolate will be next for us too.

Thanks for sharing these Sue.

Lee

Lee, thanks for reporting back about the lemon cake. I especially appreciate your input on the glaze. Those proportions sound just about right. I'm going to make a note on my print out.

I haven't gotten around to making another cake yet. Maybe tomorrow...

The glaze really worked well. It turned into a lovely thin crunchy coating after the five additional minutes in the oven. It was all absorbed by the cake. This is definitely one I'll make again.

Lee

I've been playing around with a white cake version of this for cupcakes. It's bake sale season around here and cupcakes are always a big seller. The problem I kept running into was texture. My 15 yr old said it tasted like cornbread, meaning a coarse texture. I ended up using cake flour and superfine sugar and that seemed to do the trick. The original recipe calls for all purpose flour so I got out my scale and weighed an equal amount of cake flour (125g/cup). I'm not sure on the substitution ratio in cups of cake flour for all- purpose. I also added in about 1/3 c of sprinkles to make them funfetti:) This is my version of the recipe Vegan Cupcakes from allrecipes. This is definitely not vegan anymore.

2c all purpose flour (I used 250g cake flour)
1 1/2 c buttermilk
1 c superfine sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 c oil
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 t almond extract

Preheat oven to 350�. Line 18 muffin cups with liners.

In large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt. In separate bowl whisk together buttermilk, oil, and extracts. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Spoon into muffin cups and bake 15-20 minutes.

Tracey, what a good idea to add the sprinkles.

I'm glad this came back up. Elery doesn't eat sweets and I do not like cake mixes, they have that weird fake flavor and texture.

These cakes are just the right size for me, thanks. I don't know how I missed it the first time.

Annie

Thanks Annie! I saw the sprinkle idea on a blog and it was a revalation lol. Homemade funfetti! The longer sprinkles seem to work a little better than the balls.

Tracey

My family has made the orginal Wacky Cake recipe for years.
It's vegan friendly and you can always make a cake if you don't have any eggs.

It's so moist and chocolatey....

Linda