Wacky {Cup}Cakes for Halloween

This was the first cake I learned how to make when I was a kid, and one probably many of you did too: Wacky Cake. The recipe card I have is dated 1948, so it's a tried and true recipe that is made and loved by kids.

In fact, if you google "Wacky Cake" you can find out that it's a cake from the Great Depression when eggs and butter were rationed.

Whisk Twist
To change it up, I baked them in Halloween cookie cutters that I lined with foil and sprayed. I only filled them three-quarters full, and baked them a little less than the cake version. They popped out of the form perfectly.

Frosting
I have always had trouble decorating cakes (I wish I were an artist), so when I stumbled across this post by Astrid from La Cerise about using tracing paper or parchment paper and chocolate, I knew I wanted to try it. As it turns out, this has also been done with buttercream. Check out this cake at CakeCentral.com.

I traced the outline of the cookie cutter (next time I'll trace the inside of the cookie cutter!) onto parchment paper. Then, I filled in the outline with melted chocolate using a piping bag (sandwich ziploc bag). After freezing the chocolate, I peeled it off the parchment paper and placed the design on top of the cake shapes.

Recipe

Makes 1 8x8 pan or 9 cupcakes-in-cookie-cutters

Cake:
1 ½ cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup water

Frosting:
4 tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 tablespoons white chocolate chips

Here are the directions to make it in an 8x8 baking pan.

For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, soda, and salt in a baking pan. Make three holes. In one hole, add the oil. In another, add the vinegar. In the last, add the vanilla. Pour water and mix until blended.

Bake for 30 minutes (20-25 for the cupcake-in-cookie-cutter version).

For the frosting: Melt some semi-sweet chocolate chips in a double-boiler or in the microwave. In a separate bowl, melt some white chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave. Fill two piping bags with each of the chocolates. Pipe the chocolate onto a tracing of the cookie cutter or right onto the cupcake.

Tasting Notes
I made these after my Tuesdays with Dorie cake (coming up tomorrow) and side-by-side comparisons were interesting. The kids preferred the Wacky {Cup}Cake taste to the more chocolatey taste of Dorie's Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcake. The Wacky Cake isn't as sweet or as chocolatey, so I was surprised that the kids liked this one better. However, without a side-by-side comparison, both cakes are delicious.

If you liked this, you might like my Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins baked in cookie cutters too.

Happy Halloween!