insane•chocolate cake

While things at my house often feel a little insane (thus is the nature of living with energetic young boys), that is not the namesake of this cake.  The original recipe for this has been around for as long as I can remember, and came to me from my mom.  I think she may have gotten it from her mom.  It was originally called "Crazy Chocolate Cake", but I've done a few things to it that make it even less mentally stable, so to speak.

For instance, some people might think adding whole wheat flour to a cake is a little nuts, but that's just how I do things.

Doubling the chocolate in an already chocolatey recipe might seem a bit crazed, but that's how I like my cake.

Skipping the frosting on a cake may come across as slightly wacko, but I personally think frosting would just ruin this one.

The method of mixing the batter also seems a touch loco, but I'm just being faithful to the original recipe on that count.

In any case, this cake is insanely good-- moist, dense, dark-- and crazy-easy to make...

the (non)veggies:*

• 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 1 medium banana, mashed
• 2 cups cold water
• powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

the love:

1. Preheat your oven to 350° and prep a 9-inch bundt pan (or a 9x13-inch cake pan).
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa.  Smash any large lumps of brown sugar with the back of your mixing spoon.
3. Make three holes in the flour mixture, and put the vanilla, vinegar, and oil each in a separate hole (but don't ask me why).
4. Dump the mashed banana and the water over the top of everything and stir it all together until it's just combined.
5. Pour into your prepared pan and bake for about an hour (or closer to 40 minutes if you're using a flat pan), or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. Let the cake cool in the bundt pan for a few minutes before carefully inverting it onto a plate.
7. Dust the cake with powdered sugar once it's cool, or serve with a scoop of ice cream, chopped pecans, a drizzle of dark chocolate syrup, and/or berries...  Go nuts.

tip:

*Of all the things I've done to this recipe, I've never bothered to adjust it for altitude.  Somehow, it still comes out great (I know, crazy).  So, anyway, unlike with most of my baking recipes you probably won't have to re-adjust this one if you live at a lower elevation.