Guilt free, never fail, Chocolate Cake

As requested on Sunday by some of the ladies in our Sunday School Class this is my guilt free, never fail Chocolate Cake recipe.

Sift together: 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 heaped tablespoons cocoa

Make 3 wells in the mixture and add in:
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vinegar
6 teaspoons oil

Pour in 1 cup of water and stir mixture well.

Bake in a 9inch by 9inch cake tin in a moderate oven (Gas 5, 350f, 180c) for 25 minutes.

I like to top with either chocolate water icing or chocolate buttercreme icing.

I've been using this recipe for 17 years and I've never had it fail me yet. I've even used it as the cake base for novelty cakes, including an Elmo cake for my sister's 21st birthday.

This cake is guilt free as it has no dairy products, no butter, no eggs, no chocolate. I have tried substitutes for the sugar but the chemistry that makes this cake so light and moist just doesn't work so well with anything but white sugar. It does make 16 portions so I feel that 1/16 cup of sugar is not really so bad for such a yummy cake.

I did experiment with this cake for a friend who could not eat cocoa. I substituted 6 heaped tablespoons of dessicated coconut for the 3 tablespoons of cocoa, and added just a little less water. It also needs to bake for 40 minutes instead of 25. I like the coconut version topped with lemon water icing, as the lemon flavour goes very nicely with the coconut.

Both versions can also be made up as cupcakes, just reduce the baking time a little.