Recipes
Amanda Kludt’s One-Pan Cake
Makes one 9-inch single-layer cake
Meet your new go-to cake recipe. It’s a cinch to make, the ingredients are basic and inexpensive, and it’s shockingly delicious, given how unfussy it is. You just mix everything in a pie pan and pop it in the oven. The cake comes from Amanda, the editor in chief of Eater, the must-read website for the chef- and restaurant-obsessed. Amanda’s grandmother made Crazy Cake during World War II as it requires no eggs or butter, so it was one of the few cakes you could make back then when groceries were rationed. Today, Amanda’s mom bakes the cake for every family birthday and adds the ultimate flourish: pink frosting.
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From The Cherry Bombe Cookbook
Image Credits
Photo by Alpha Smoot
ingredients
for the cake
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup cold water
for the frosting
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1¾ cups confectioners’ sugar
- Red food coloring or cherry juice
Method
- For the frosting: In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, almond extract, and confectioners’ sugar until well combined. Add a few drops of food coloring and stir until the desired tint is reached.
- For the cake: Preheat oven to 350℉. Sift the flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder into a glass pie pan. Gently whisk together, taking care not to let the mixture fly out of the dish. Make three wells for the liquid ingredients. Pour the vanilla into the first, the vinegar into the second, and the oil into the third. Pour the cold water over the entire mixture and stir until all lumps are gone. If necessary, wipe the batter off the edges of the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Once the cake is completely cool, frost the top of it directly in the pan and serve.
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