The BEST Chocolate Cake!

I LOVE making cakes! I love it so much that I once did an internship at a bakery (that means I worked for FREE) even though I wasn't a culinary student (pretty much every other intern was!). It definitely had its benefits. Aside from eating free baked goods, I learned some pretty tricky tricked out decorating tricks (got that?). Oh I also smelled like baked goods. Who doesn't love that? There were some downsides of course... Pulling all the orders for the next day out of the sub zero freezer! That was cold (at least I got to eat ice cold cookie dough balls while I did it). Being on your feet ALL day long! Bakeries open EARLY and its pretty demanding. You don't sit. You are mixing, in the freezer, in the fridge, cutting, greasing, washing, piping, etc. You get really messy too! Which I guess can be fun.. Then you see some things you don't want to see. I'm a pretty clean person, and there were a few baked goods that I wouldn't eat because I saw what happened to them or who made them.. Not to deter you from bakeries. I love bakeries. Anyway now I'm off topic. This is a recipe for my go-to chocolate cake. At my bakery (not mine, but my intern bakery) we used cake mixes, which I thought was weird.. Aren't bakeries suppose to be homemade fresh cakes! If I wanted a cake from a box I could do that myself. But alas, mass production makes it hard to make everything from scratch. Dang I'm going off on another bakery tangent. 

When I make my cakes, I make them from scratch. I am not opposed to box cake, in fact, I love funfetti (is there anyone who doesn't?) but when someone pays me to make a cake, I make it from scratch (unless you want funfetti). I've tried a lot of recipes, and this is my all time favorite chocolate cake. I somehow managed to not get any pictures of the cake making (my memory card wasn't in my camera! I'm so smrt) but I got some pictures of the final cake, which you can in no way tell is chocolate.. OK OK onto the cake making! 

This will make two 8 inch square cakes or 24 cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350
3 cups flour (or cake flour if you'd like)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil, sunflower oil, grapeseed oil, or any mild flavored oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp distilled white vinegar
2 cups of water

Mix your dry ingredients, and the wet, spray your pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes (baking time may vary from oven to oven, always check on your goods after about 20-25 minutes) DO NOT open your oven prematurely or your cake will sink in the middle.

You may have noticed that this is VEGAN, yes VEGAN. I have made cakes with butter, milk, cream, etc. This one is the BEST. It's even better if you let it sit out over night (I'm not sure why but it's true!). 

Enjoy!