Chocolate Cherry Crazy Cake

All cooks have recipes that they can rely on for quick, easy, always-have-the-ingredients, recipes for every part of a meal - ways they can turn leftovers into YUMMMMMM (without the guests being the wiser), and three ingredients in the pantry into more please. Crazy Chocolate Cake - also known to many as Vegan Chocolate Cake, or Volcano Cake is such a recipe. Anyone who bakes even sometimes likely has the ingredients on hand, and from the first "Hmmmm, maybe I'd like a piece of chocolate cake after dinner" to the wonderful smells of chocolate cake baking takes under 10 minutes - and only dirties one spoon and one bowl - If you're really lazy, it can even be prepared right in the baking pan - though that's best left if the cake is for you, and not to be served to company.

I made a batch of Death By Chocolate Cookies for dessert this shabbat - a new recipe (I'll post another time), and was feeling kind of iffy about them . It was two hours before shabbat - everything else was ready (except the amazing brisket on the grill) - why, even the floor had been mopped - so I pulled out my Crazy Chocolate Cake recipe - but got creative - found a can of sweet black cherries - and used the cherry juice from the can for part of the water and cut up the cherries right in the can with a paring knife before stirring them into the batter. The topping was the real fun part though. I usually sprinkle a handful of chocolate chips on the cake as soon as it tests done and leave it in the oven one extra minute to melt the chips, which are then spread right on the cake - ta da - frosting. When I went to the pantry to pull out the chips, I noticed a bag of marshmallows - which got tossed on along with the chocolate chips - amazing topping.

So next time you've got 10 minutes - with our without the cherries and marshmallows!

Crazy Chocolate Cherry Cake

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 15 ounce can sweet black cherries, drained and cut up
• 2 cups liquid total - Juice from canned cherries plus water
• about 1 cup marshmallows
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 13 x 9 baking pan with aluminum foil, allowing for overhang to lift cake from pan when cool and spray with PAM.

Stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Pour in vanilla, vinegar, oil, cherry juice/water and stir until just mixed. Stir in cherries.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven.

Sprinkle marshmallows and chocolate chips on top. Leave in oven one more minute. Remove from oven and let sit for two minutes. Swirl melted marshmallows and chocolate chips. Allow to cool. Cake can be lifted out of pan with aluminum foil, put on tray and aluminum foil from sides of cake peeled away.