Total time: 1 hr 10 min • Prep: 10 min • Cook: 1 hr • Serves: 14 • Difficulty: Easy

This cake’s a winner. It’s like a rich devil’s food cake but it's slimmed down by adding a secret ingredient: canned sauerkraut. (Yes, you read that right.) It’s the key to cake’s spongy, moist texture and gives it a slight tanginess that resembles the taste of sour cream. You can easily enhance the rich chocolate flavor of this cake by adding strong brewed coffee instead of the hot water or add some spice and stir in cayenne pepper and cinnamon with the vanilla. We recommend dusting the baked cake with cocoa powder, but you could use confectioner’s sugar for a touch of sweetness.