Wacky Cupcakes for Wacky People

And as Mark Twain said, “In one way or another, all men are mad.” Mad, crazy, wacky, unstable, however you want to put it, we all suffer a bit from that malady. It shows up differently in different people, but no one is free from the condition!

Therefore, since we are all Wacky People, we are all qualified to enjoy Wacky Cupcakes.

Wacky cake was invented during the world wars, when butter, eggs, milk, and sugar were rationed due to shortages. Thanks to the inventive generations preceding us, we have a reliable and easy recipe to use during times when we have:

• no money left in the grocery budget, and no eggs or milk in the fridge
• intolerance or allergy to eggs or dairy
• a desire to eliminate animal products from our diet.

One thing I find amazing about this recipe is its adaptability; I have used this basic framework to make spice cake or plain old vanilla cake, and even gluten-free cake. This time around, I turned it into a mocha cake with great success! It hasn’t failed on me yet. Some people say you have to mix the ingredients right in the pan, or make wells in the dry ingredients for each of the wet ingredients, but I never do those things and it always turns out.

And the above-referenced, ever-knowledgeable Cooks’ Country folks say you absolutely have to add the wet ingredients at the very last minute before baking in order for it to rise, which is why they recommend stirring it in the baking pan. That’s simply not an option, though, if you want to make cupcakes. It’s true, they may not rise as high as conventional cupcakes, but a simple remedy is to make a few less cupcakes (perhaps 9 instead of 12). I made the usual 12 cupcakes with my batch, and I was satisfied with both the height and texture of the finished cupcakes, so that call is up to you.

*Note: The sugar is reduced as much as it can be for a successful recipe.

I frosted these cupcakes with 1 1/2 batches of a slightly healthified frosting recipe. I wanted to try making my own powdered sugar from my raw sugar, but my food processor is just not strong enough. I need a VitaMix! So I had to resort to plain old powdered sugar, because I simply cannot find any edible dairy-free frosting recipes that are also powdered-sugar free. However, I did use some coconut milk, and some palm oil shortening instead of plain old vegetable Crisco.

You can add 1 TBSP of cocoa to make chocolate frosting. I used 1 TBSP of Ghirardelli mocha powder (given to me by my Certain Little Someone for my birthday) to make a delicious mocha flavor (You could probably achieve something similar by using coffee instead of coconut milk, and adding the cocoa powder).

This recipe is as QUICK as any cake mix, I promise!

It is also just as EASY, if not easier.

It is most certainly CHEAPer than purchasing a mix, especially since you don’t even have to add eggs.

HEALTHY? No. Unfortunately, removing eggs and dairy also removes some nutritional value, leaving the cake even more nutritionally bankrupt than usual. Ah, well. At least my Baby Boy won’t have eczema after I eat it! That is HEALTHY for him.