Amelia Bedelia Cake

Last night at bedtime, I was reading one of those awful Amelia Bedelia books to my daughter and at the back of the book she discovered a recipe.  I knew what was coming next, M was going to request we make it and I was dreading having to say no.  I thought it would be an egg and dairy laden dessert but when I read the ingredients out loud I was shocked to discover it was vegan!  What!  Cool!

So, after my daughter extracted a promise from me that we would make it first thing in the morning, she happily went off to sleep.  I love the rare days at home when I can devote an afternoon to browsing through my cookbooks, baking treats and planning future meals.  Lately, those days seem far and few between but happily today was one of them.  

We quickly assembled the ingredients from the pantry and my only complaint was that it called for everything to be mixed in the baking pan with a fork.  I found it a little tedious getting the wet and dry ingredients mixed properly in the darn corners.  It would have been much easier and faster to use a large mixing bowl.  This is a great recipe to make with kids because they can do it all from start to finish with minimal assistance.  It was moist and not too sweet but I found some inconsistency in the batter because it was mixed in the pan (and shhhh don't tell anyone but we didn't sift the dry ingredients).

Amelia Bedelia's Sheet Cake

3 cups of flour
1 3/4 cups of sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup of cocoa
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups water

Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa directly into an ungreased 9" by 13" pan.  Add oil, vinegar, and vanilla.  Pour water over all ingredients.  Mix with a fork until smooth..

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. 

Okay, so we didn't exactly sift the dry ingredients. 

Mixing with great concentration.

Chocolate sheet cake fresh from the oven.