Funny Cakes: The Only Hacked Recipe You’ll Need
This is a recipe for a chocolate cake that’s so good, it’ll make your taste buds do backflips. It’s also a great way to get rid of that box of salt water taffy sitting in the back of your cupboard and get some use out of all those Easter eggs you have lying around after Easter.
Ingredients:
When you’re making a cake, it’s important to know what ingredients you need.
- Ingredients are listed in order of use. For example, if there’s frosting involved, the first ingredient listed would be cream cheese.
- Ingredients are listed in order of importance; if you have an ingredient with multiple uses, it will be at the top of the list with its most common purpose (this is true for baking soda/powder and baking powder). If there are multiple ways to prepare an ingredient for use in a recipe (e.g., apples may be peeled or not), then that information will also be provided after each item on the list.
- Ingredients are listed by quantity required per recipe (with some exceptions—like eggs—for which we’ve given approximate amounts).
1 bag of salt water taffy
This is one of the more straightforward items to purchase, so we’ll keep this brief. You may have noticed that some flavor combinations are much more popular than others (the ratio between strawberry and cake flavored salt water taffy at my local store is something like 8:1). To ensure that your kids get a variety of flavors and don’t end up with only one or two they like, pick up a few bags of different kinds and let them choose their favorites!
2 cups all purpose flour
All, purpose flour is the most common type of flour for baking in America. It’s suitable for most recipes, from cakes to cookies and pastries to breads. The blend of hard and soft wheat makes this a versatile flour that can be used to create tender, flaky pastry crusts or chewy breads.
1 cup cocoa powder
Let’s get this out of the way: cocoa powder is not chocolate. It’s just a different kind of chocolate, and it comes in two types: “natural” or “Dutch, process.” Natural cocoa powder has more acidity than Dutch, process, so it tends to be slightly bitter. Both are delicious!
I use them interchangeably—you can’t go wrong with either type—but if you want your cake to turn out extra moist and fudgy (like brownies), choose natural cocoa powder instead of Dutch, process; and if you want something that tastes like melted chocolate chips but doesn’t have any actual added sugar (like cookies), then go for the Dutch, process kind instead.
1 teaspoon baking soda
One teaspoon of baking soda can be used as a leavening agent in cakes, cookies and muffins. It is most commonly used in chocolate cakes, chocolate chip cookies and pancakes to make them rise. Baking soda can also be used as a substitute for baking powder.
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
Now that you’ve got the butter softened and ready, it’s time to add it to the bowl. Add 3/4 cup of room temperature butter and beat well until incorporated. It helps to use an electric mixer for this step, but if you don’t have one, then use a wooden spoon or spatula—either way will work just fine!
3/4 cup sugar
Sugar is a type of sweetener and has been used for centuries to preserve, flavor and add sweetness to food. Sugar helps make foods taste better by improving their texture, appearance, shelf life and mouthfeel. Sugar also acts as an acidity regulator in cooking, which means it can help balance the pH levels in baked goods. This helps prevent the growth of harmful bacteria that could cause food poisoning if left unchecked.
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
Brown sugar is a mixture of white sugar and molasses. It’s used in baking, often as a substitute for regular granulated white sugar; it also adds moisture to baked goods and gives them a sweet, tart flavor (think caramel). Brown sugar can be used in savory dishes, too: you might add it to your meat rub for barbecuing or use it in the dressing for coleslaw. Some people even like adding brown sugar to stews! And that’s not all—brown sugar has been known to make an appearance at cocktail hour as well!
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3 cups all, purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Vanilla extract is a flavoring made from vanilla beans. It’s a common ingredient in baking, and it’s used in many desserts and sweet drinks. The flavor can be extracted from the bean by soaking it in alcohol (usually vodka). Well, that’s it for our first recipe! We hope you enjoyed reading about how to make chocolate chip cookies, and that you’ll give it a shot when you have some free time. They’re easy, delicious, and can be made in just a couple of hours.
