I think the Cake you want is called Wacky Cake. I'll list a link for a recipe. It's unusual in that it doesn't have milk or eggs, and uses vinegar.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wacky Cake recipe

COCKEYED CAKE
From The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken (1960)

1-1/2 cups sifted flour
3 Tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoon cooking oil
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cold water

Put your sifted flour back in the sifter, add to it the cocoa, soda, sugar, and salt, and sift this right into a greased square cake pan, about 9 x 9 x 2 inches. Now you make three grooves, or holes, in this dry mixture. Into one, pour the oil; into the next, the vinegar; into the next, the vanilla. Now pour the cold water over it all. You'll feel like you're making mud pies now, but beat it with a spoon until it's nearly smooth and you can't see the flour. Bake it at 350 degrees for half an hour.

Here is some more information:
In her article "Mad for Crazy Cake" in the Los Angeles Times on January 20, 2010, Emily Dwass quoted food scientist Shirley Corriher, author of "CookWise" and "BakeWise."

"The key challenge of crazy cake is getting the cake to hold together. Corriher explains that in a normal recipe, eggs and flour supply the protein required to set and hold the cake. Without eggs, the flour is responsible for giving the cake its form and texture. For crazy cake, she says it's essential to use a high-protein all-purpose unbleached flour such as King Arthur.

"You need a flour with all the protein you can get," Corriher says. "When you add water to flour and stir, the proteins in the flour grab the water and each other and make these springy elastic sheets of gluten. . . . With an eggless cake, you don't have much to hold the cake together. So you've got to give those glutens every advantage to get together. The reason for the vinegar in the cake is to do this. An acidic batter helps the proteins to set faster. And the other thing that helps is the ca-razy method of putting it together."

"Forming the three holes, then pouring water over all and stirring allows the oil to float on top of the liquid, letting the water get directly to the flour, so it can make some gluten.

"In her recipe, Corriher uses more cocoa powder than in other versions, for a deeper chocolate flavor. And she calls for extra oil to create a more moist cake. She recommends using baking powder because it is more dependable than baking soda. Corriher also cautions not to use Dutch process cocoa, because its alkalinity may interfere with the setting of the cake."

Here is a link that might be useful: Crazy Cake article in LA Times

Jenna, don't take this the wrong way, but you're a "good read"!! You should lurk less and post more! :-D

I use the recipe on the box of Quaker Oatmeal for my oatmeal cookies. I use real butter and often add dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks to the cookie dough, but the cookies are delicious without the additions.

Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cranberries & White Chocolate

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fiori di sicilia, (optional)
1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips (or 8-ounce bar of white chocolate, cut into small chunks)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Thoroughly mix in eggs and flavorings. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add to butter mixture. Mix in oatmeal. Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate.

Line baking sheet with silicone baking mat or parchment. Place rounded tablespoons of cookie dough 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until cookies are set and edges are slightly golden. Remove from oven and leave on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove cookies to rack and cool completely.

Yield: 3-1/2 dozen cookies

Lori

This is my all time favourite Oatmeal Cookie.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Oatmeal - Best Oatmeal Cookies
==============================
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup
Packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-2/3 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon
Baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
1-1/2 cups rolled oats
. Preheat oven to 350 Cream butter and sugars together until light and
fluffy. Add egg and beat until smooth. Add vanilla Combined flour,
soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir into butter
mixture. Add rolled oats. Roll into small balls (golf ball size) and
flatten with glass dipped in sugar. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until
bottoms are golden. Cookie should not get brown. Cool on wire rack.

Source: Toronto Star

Here is a link that might be useful: Thibeault's Table - Best Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

Jenna, I'm wondering if the chocolate dipping sauce (or something similar) you're looking for is "nutella", often used for biscotti? It's a chocolate-hazelnut spread that's available in most grocery stores here in New York, can't say though for any other parts of the country.

About your query for a "Chewy" oatmeal cookie; I have a friend that is very competitive (and guarded) about her recipes. For years I have tried to match her recipe by trying many different ones, including developing my own. Quite by accident one day, (I think I wasn't feeling well) in a mad rush, I used the recipe from the Quaker Oats Container; it was an unmistakeable match. I love Oatmeal cookies and we all love this recipe the best; I highly recommend.

Quaker's Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients
1 stick plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups quick or old fashioned oats, uncooked
1 cup raisins (I use cranberries for xmas)

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As for your query on chocolate cake, I think the recipe that you're looking for might already be posted. This xmas I had a request to make the chocolate cupcakes from "Magnolia Bakery", very famous here in Manhattan. I really loved this recipe; It is not a deep chocolate flavor if that's what you're looking for; The texture and flavor is delicious and instructions follow for a layer cake.

Magnolia Bakery Chocolate Cupcakes
(Instructions for a 9-inch double layer cake to follow*).

Cupcakes
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing
vanilla buttercream frosting
chocolate buttercream frosting

Directions
To melt the chocolate, place in a double boiler over simmering water on low heat for 5-10 minutes (about; stir occasionally until completely smooth and no pieces remain; remove from heat and let cool 5-15 minutes or until lukewarm.

Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers; set aside.

In a bowl, sift the flour and baking soda together; set aside.

In a big mixing bowl, cream the butter, using an electric mixer on MEDIUM speed, until smooth.

Add the sugars and beat for about 3 minutes or until fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beat well after each addition.

Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients, in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla.

With each addition, beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overmix.

Scrape down the batter from the sides of the bowl, using a rubber spatula, to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.

Carefully spoon batter into cupcake liners; fill 3/4 full.

Bake in a 350 degrees F oven for 20-25 minutes or until pick comes out clean.

Cool in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from tins and cool completely on a wire rack. Ice when completely cool.

*If you would like to make a layer cake instead of cupcakes, divide the batter between two dusted and floured, 9-inch round cake pans and bake the layers for 30 to 40 minutes.

I think you won't be disappointed. Happy baking!

This oatmeal cookie recipe stays moist and chewy. Deanna posted it a while ago and it became the family favorite. I always bake on parchment.

"Drum roll please............

Mrs. Fields Oatmeal Cookie Recipe!
Published by Time Life books, copyright Debbi Fields 1992

Oatmeal Raisin Chews

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen without walnuts, 3 dozen with walnuts

2 1/2 c. AP flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup quick oats (I use old fashioned, they're fine)
1 c. dark brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 c. salted butter, softened
2 TBS. honey
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Combine flour, soda, salt and oats in a medium bowl and mix with wire whisk, set aside.

In a large bowl, mix sugars with electric mixer.
Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste.
Scrape down sides of bowl, then add honey, vanilla & eggs.
Mix until fully combined.
Add the flour mixture, raisins and walnuts, mix on low until just combined, do not overmix.
Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets, 2 in. apart.
Bake for 18-22 minutes or until cookies are light golden brown.
Immediately transfer to a cool flat surface.

Pour milk. Enjoy!

OK, that last line is mine. :-)
My notes:
I never use an electric mixer.
I just put the cookies on a sheet of foil on the counter top when I remove from cookie sheet.
I almost always double the batch and fill up 2 or 3 cottage cheese container with dough and freeze it. Those will each make about 2 dozen FRESH cookies later!
This has been the only oatmeal cookie recipe I make since the first time we tried it.

Hope you like them as much as we do.
Deanna"

Jenna, let me add to the list of people who use the Quaker Oats cookie recipe, I like the cookies that have about twice as much oatmeal as it does flour.

I can't help you much on the chocolate cake, although I have a recipe that takes mayonnaise, one that takes beets and another that takes tomato soup, if any of those things ring a bell with your DH.

As for dipping chocolate, I use chocolate chips. I don't like the "bark", it's usually fake chocolate, I like the real stuff and the chips have something in them to help them stay firm and keep their shape, so I just melt chips and use them for dipping.

I do love sugar cookies spread with nutella, though...

Annie

I also plump the raisins before I bake with them. It helps with the moistness and keeps the raisins from caramelizing.

I use Trader Joe's Pound Plus dark chocolate bars for dipping. I melt it in the top of a double boiler over simmering water.