The perfect little black dress of chcolates cakes

I told the girls we could make cake the next time I had to bake something. Of course I knew it would be Crazy Cake. My food philosophies have changed some since I first posted this recipe. So I use all whole wheat flour (my fresh ground mix of grains still turns out very light, can't vouch for the store bought stuff) and just because of a habit I have formed I cut the sugar in half. I automatically cut the sugar in any modern recipe in half. I've found that a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream really goes a long way in this. The cake turns out moist and delish every time I've made it over the years. I've decided I like to keep it simple and the sugar in-take low by just eating a square of it all by it's self, no frosting. It makes for a nice quick and light treat. I can imagine the girls mixing this up all on their own in a few years. I have grandiose goals of making them even more useful in the kitchen, which is why it's so good to bake this up together now.

There are scads of easy ways to dress this little cake up. Try any of these in the cake batter. Mint Extract. Chocolate Chips. Coconut Flakes. Mix up as easy cream cheese frosting (cream cream cheese, honey or maple syrup, butter, vanilla and keep tasting and adding until it tastes good) and drop spoonfuls of it into the batter, for Earthquake Cake, or go a step father and add peanut butter to the cream cheese frosting. I was very sceptical about that the first time I made it, and I must say it's been a HUGE winner at our house.  Cream butter and brown sugar and mix in coconut and chopped nuts. Put it on top of the cooled cake and back in the oven under the boiler. Don't leave it for heaven's sake! Stand right there the whole time, make the little ones watch through the window if they are nagging, and pull it out as soon as it's brown and bubbly. Whipped cream...I actually like it with no sugar. Ice cream. Double the recipe, make it in a 13x9 and take it to your next pot luck gathering. It's cheep and not any harder than a box mix in my book. Or double it and bake it in round cake pans and top with a lovely chocolate butter cream, and fill the between layers with strawberry jam...for those really special times when 'how-much sugar' doesn't matter.  I think I'm out of ideas. Let me know if you think of something else. What ever you do with it, even it 's plain jane like ours right now, it probably won't last long.

Enjoy!c