Volcanoes, lava, meteorites, moon mud, and tasty – this cake has it all!
This is a great cake when you’re thinking that you’d like to have a dessert, but you want it to be quick. It takes just a few minutes to put together, it’s fun, and your kids can help, too.
Last night when we’d finished dinner, we wanted just that little something for an after- dinner treat, so we immediately thought of this cake. Once you’ve made it, it’ll be your go-to cake for snacking, too. We got the original recipe from The Joy of Chocolate, by Judith Olney, and have only changed up the meteorites.
Craters of the Moon Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 100 grams
- 4 Tbs cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbs white vinegar
- 1 cup milk
- 5 Tbs melted butter
- 2/3 cup Meteorites chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, nuts
Instructions
- Directly into a 9- or 10-inch cake pan, measure out the flour, sugars, salt, and cocoa. Mix together thoroughly so it appears that you have a light brown moon sand.
- Make a large crater in the center of the pan, a medium crater on one side of the big crater, and a small crater on the other side.
- Spoon the baking soda into the medium crater. Measure the vanilla into the smallest crater. Pour the melted butter into the largest crater.
- Pour the vinegar into the medium crater, right on top of the baking soda, so that the volcano erupts and lava flows over the surface of the moon.
- Once the volcano subsides, pour the milk over the surface, flooding the moon.
- Stir everything together until you have a nice batch of moon mud.
- Now toss your chosen meteorites onto the surface of the moon.
- Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the cake’s center comes out dry.
- Let the moon cool in the pan, then slice and serve.
Ingredient discussion:
Nothing special here except meteorites. Fortunately, these meteorites are easy to come by: nuts, chocolate chips, etc. Anything small that would taste good with a chocolate cake is fair game. Note: we give the amount of brown sugar by weight. If you have a kitchen scale, that’s the easiest way of measuring brown sugar — no packing required.
Procedure in detail:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Make moon sand. Directly into a 9- or 10-inch cake pan, measure out the flour, sugars, salt, and cocoa. Yep, just put them right in, no greasing needed. No other bowl needed, either. Everything is going to happen right in the cake pan. Mix together thoroughly so it appears that you have a light brown moon sand.
Make craters. Make a large crater in the center of the pan, a medium crater on one side of the big crater, and a small crater on the other side.
Add baking soda. Spoon the baking soda into the medium crater.
Add vanilla. Measure the vanilla into the smallest crater.
Add butter. Pour the melted butter into the largest crater, making a small sea of butter.
Make volcano. Pour the vinegar into the medium crater, right on top of the baking soda, so the volcano erupts and lava flows over the surface of the moon.
Make a flood. Once the volcano subsides, pour the milk over the surface, flooding the moon.
Make moon mud. Stir everything together until you have a nice batch of moon mud.
Create a meteor storm. Now toss your chosen meteorites onto the surface of the moon.
Bake. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the cake’s center comes out dry.
Cool. Let the moon cool in the pan, then slice and serve.
Perhaps surprisingly, this is a really good chocolate cake. Sure, you can probably find a richer cake, but you’ll never find one that is as much fun to mix up. For that alone we give it five stars.
This will be lots of fun to make when Adam is here. He’ll get a kick out of the volcano and he can help put in the meteorites! It looks delicious!
For how easy and fun this cake is to put together, it is a really tasty little cake. We have it whenever we want a dessert, but don’t want to go to much trouble. And the volcano and meteorites are a bonus.
My kids and I love this cake. We make it for Yom Teruah. After it is done we use powdered sugar and sift a “new moon” on the top. Such fun!
What a great idea!