Non-dairy chocolate cake

There are many times I feel lucky, and having a family (including extended family) without any manner of food allergies is a blessing.  I don't normally need to worry about what I make, and cooking is easy.  Some friends of ours have a bit more of a challenge.  They have two boys with milk allergies.  Considering I practically live on milk and cheese, this is an extremely foreign concept to me.  The idea of cooking without dairy is daunting.  It's in EVERYTHING!  Ok, that might be an exaggeration, but HELLO  Chocolate? 

Girl's birthday party is coming up, and I have decided to make the birthday cake a non-dairy version, because as much as their oldest (2 1/2) has accepted his fate, I would feel bad making a cake that he couldn't eat.  All kids should be able to eat the birthday cake. 

So, I hit the internet and found a chocolate cake recipe that didn't have all sorts of weird ingredients.  (So often when you look for something dairy free, it's also vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, and enjoyment-free).  This recipe seemed simple enough, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.

1 ½ cups unbleached white flour

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

½ cup vegetable oil

1 cup cold water or coffee

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons vinegar

Preheat the oven to 375º.


Sift together the flour, cocoa, soda, salt, and sugar directly into the cake pan. In the measuring cup, measure and mix together the oil, cold water or coffee, and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the baking pan and mix the batter with a fork or a small whisk. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. There will be pale swirls in the batter as the baking soda and vinegar react. Stir just until the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout the batter.


Bake for 25 to 30 minutes and set aside to cool.

So, I read the recipe and thought "why wouldn't I mix this in a bowl?"  but decided I'd follow the recipe as written to see if it made any sense.  Of course, my initial instincts were right, it made no sense.  It got clumpy and any time that could possibly be saved by not washing a single bowl was wasted trying to get the batter to mix evenly without spilling it everywhere.  Needless to say, I scraped it into a bowl, mixed it properly and scraped it back in right after stirring in the vinegar. 
 
So far...  it looks like cake, it smells like cake, and tastes like cake.  I know it tastes fine because it did not release nicely from the bottom of the pan, so I'd recommend a layer of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan to make your life easier.   Oh well, looks like it'll be a three layer cake instead of four.