Chocolate Cherry Wacky Cake Adventure

“Are we going to have something chocolate, too?” my friend Samantha asked me.

It was Thanksgiving morning. I considered the pecan dessert another friend was bringing, the pumpkin chiffon pie in the refrigerator, the Greek cheese pie in the oven, and Sam’s own Parker House rolls still in progress. Plus the rest of the meal I’d be co-hosting. Then I responded “yes.”

Time for a wacky cake.

If you’re not already familiar with wacky cakes — sometimes given names like “mixed-up” and “crazy” — these World War II-era chocolate cakes made from pantry staples are fast and easy to make. So easy a child can do it. As a kid, I actually did make a version with my mom that we called snacking cake.

This isn’t a rich chocolate cake, not surprising given the lack of butter, eggs, and milk. But it satisfies a craving. And it can be pulled off even when you’re drowning in to-do lists or simply procrastibaking. The base is dairy-free and can be vegan depending on the sugar and chocolate chips used.

The wacky cake I’m partial to as an adult is adapted from this Epicurious recipe. I kick it up a notch with good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark cocoa powder, and chopped dried cherries. Being a sucker for almond flavor, I’ll often add a little almond extract or almond liqueur. There are nearly endless tweaks you could make with this cake.

On occasion I’ve also mixed the 1 cup of lukewarm water with 1 teaspoon of instant espresso powder to give the flavor more depth, an excellent suggestion from Epicurious commenters. If you want, you can mix all the ingredients except the cherries right in the baking dish, and then sprinkle them on top, pushing them into the batter gently with a spoon.

Thanksgiving last year was such a whirl that I can’t even remember which variation I actually made, but the cake provided our guests with a nice bit of chocolate at the end of the waistline-defying meal.

For an extra special presentation, you can drizzle a icing over the cooled cake.

Chocolate Cherry Wacky Cake

1½ C. bleached all-purpose flour
¼ C. unsweetened cocoa powder (I like Hershey’s Special Dark)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
¾ C. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ Tbsp. almond extract or almond liqueur (optional)
1 Tbsp. white or cider vinegar
6 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 C. warm water (optional: mixed with 1 tsp. instant espresso powder)
½ C. semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ C. dried tart and sweet cherries (such as Trader Joe’s dried Montmorency sour cherries)

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375°F.

Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish or pan; vegetable spray is fine. Roughly chop the dried cherries.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a medium mixing bowl, then add the sugar. Add the wet ingredients: oil, vanilla, and vinegar.

Then pour in the water (or espresso-water) and optional almond flavor. Stir the ingredients together with a fork until you can’t see any more flour and the batter looks fairly well homogenized. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the pan. Sprinkle the top with the chopped cherries and push them down into the batter slightly with a utensil. This should prevent them from all sinking to the bottom.

Bake for 24 minutes (at high altitude) or until the top is springy and a tester inserted in the center comes out dry. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack.

Optional icing: Mix ½ cup of powdered sugar with a few drops of vanilla extract and small amounts of whole milk in a bowl until you get a nice icing consistency. Drizzle over the completely cooled cake. Cut cake into nine square pieces to serve.

Keep at room temperature, wrapped airtight, for up to 3 days; refrigerate after that.