Teens and Chocolate Cake

Hi everybody. It's Benay. As you have probably noticed (if you keep up with our blog), I don't write very much, compared to Kevin. I think that I have this idea that if I sit down at the computer, I'm not doing anything. And as a mom of 5, soon to be 6, I have a compulsion to always be doing something. Anyway, I did want to share something today, and I think in the next few weeks as I get closer to my due date (Sept.13th), I'll be sitting a lot more. So maybe you'll hear more from me in the future.

This year, Kevin and I felt really led to be more involved in reaching out to young people, especially our kids' friends. One way that this has played out is that the teens involved with our house churches decided on their own to begin to have weekly get-togethers and invite their non-Christian friends. Last night was the first get-together here at our house. The kids have planned out what they will do at each meeting and last night was just a "goof-off and get to know each other" kind of thing. There were about 20 kids here - more than half not-yet-Christians. They played Wii and basketball, sang to the guitar, and just ran around and had fun.

They had not planned anything for the food for this meeting. I felt like they needed to have something, but didn't have much in the house (time to go to the grocery store). So I found a recipe for chocolate cake that doesn't use butter (which I didn't have), eggs or milk. I wanted to share this with you all because feeding teenagers (or big families!) can get expensive and this recipe was really cheap. Everyone loved it and Carys described it as an "amazing cake". Hope it helps some of you moms out there.

CRAZY CAKE

INGREDIENTS
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 distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cold water

DIRECTIONS
1. Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a 9 x 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 all, and stir well with fork.
2. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Frost with your favorite icing.

I used a bowl to mix the cake and made 2 of these in large pans (a little bigger than 9x13, I think). Instead of frosting, I just dusted powdered sugar on top. I think everyone liked it. There weren't any leftovers!