"Crazy Cake" --- eggless, butterless, mixed in its pan

2 1/2 c flour            9     Tbsp salad oil
1 1/2 c sugar            2     Tbsp vinegar
4 1/2 Tbsp cocoa         1 1/2 c water
1 1/2 tsp baking soda    1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2   tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift dry ingredients together into a 9x13" cake pan.
Make a well in the center, and pour in the liquid
ingedients.  Mix well.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  (The cake is
done when the center of the cake comes back up when
touched with a finger; also, the cake should come
away from the sides of the pan a litte.)

Variations:
Replace water with (a) milk or with (b) cold STRONG coffee.
--- or, as (a)(b) combined, coffee and powdered milk.
(c) Omit cocoa and replace water with orange juice.  Replace
vinegar with lemon juice, and add some grated peel.

Variations are based on a tradition that called this
"volcano cake".  I encountered it in the Newman Center
at the University of Oregon in 1971-75.
_____________________________________________________________

Version printed in the Spokane Spokesman Review of 9 May 2007: 
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=188574

Bill Wilson, a 60-year-old Spokane resident, fondly recalls
his stepmother's cake. 

"She called it a Depression cake," Wilson writes in an e-mail. 
"But I was never depressed whenever she made it."

His stepmother, Ann Wilson, who died last year, was not a
standout cook by any means, he says.  "She had a hard time
boiling water," Wilson jokes. 

But her moist cake (packed with nearly a full cup of oil) was
always a hit.  She even sent Wilson the cake --- in three
different packages --- while he was stationed in Vietnam. 
(She figured he'd have the greatest chance of receiving at
least one cake that way.) But all three cakes made it to him. 

"It lasted precisely 10 minutes after being opened," he
writes.  "Had lots of help sampling it."

The cook in the mess hall even took the recipe and multiplied
it to feed 210 Marines, Wilson says. 

Depression Cake

From Bill Wilson's stepmother, Ann Wilson

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cold water

Sift dry ingredients together into a 9-by-13-inch ungreased
cake pan.  Make three wells.  Pour oil into one well, vinegar
into second, and vanilla into third well.  Pour cold water
over everything, and stir it up with a fork. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a broom
straw (that's what she used), or toothpick, inserted, comes
out clean. 

Yield:  About 12 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving:  370 calories, 14 grams fat
(1 gram saturated, 34 percent fat calories), 4 grams protein,
59 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams dietary fiber, 405 milligrams
sodium.