Vegan Crock-Pot Recipes: Chocolate Raspberry Dump Cake

I am a complete chocolate addict. Chocolate has become such a routine in my life that in the wee hours of the night you can usually find me in a post-editorial binge, shrouded in the darkness of my kitchen pantry, shoveling handfuls of chocolate chips into the insatiable regions of my ravenous mouth. Yes, I have a problem. But without it I couldn’t have brought you the most decadent combination of luscious, molten chocolate and tart raspberries that you will ever indulge in. And maybe you’ll even have some of this delicious vegan chocolate cake left over for your friends…but probably not. While the name can be somewhat off-putting, the title “dump” implies just that--dumping ingredients into a pan and letting them cook together, with ease. Not a very appetizing way to introduce the best cake ever, grandma. But, nonetheless, I thank her whole-heartedly. “Back in the day,” when eggs, milk, and butter were low, our mother’s mothers created the original “dump cake.” In the 1940s the rations were at an astronomical price -- all thanks to the pinnacle of World War II -- and making a typical cake became increasingly difficult for the average housewife. This led our home-making, Betty-Crocker-ing foremothers to devise a way to replicate the traditional cake without its essential ingredients. And there was born the DUMP cake! Affordable. Delicious. And easy enough for it to be made during your shift making cogs at the local war-time factory. Shout out to Rosie the Riveter!... Even though I highly doubt she made cakes. However! It was during these good-old-days that my best friend’s mother’s mother (follow me here) ingrained in her the easiest, tastiest cake known to man -- or for that case -- woman-kind. And to my friend's mother and grandmother I owe my uttermost gratitude; it was them that made this vegan-friendly variation possible. In this modern revision of a passed-down classic no guilty pleasures are spared. With minimal effort and barely any hands-on cook time, you have a dessert that breaches the line between cake and cobbler, brownie and batter, and every whisk-licking treat in-between. The end result is an addicting chocolate cake crumble with molten fudge topping that tantalizes with ripened fresh raspberries. Dig in!