Depression as in The Great Depression, not depression as in “this cake will cure your depression.” 😅Since a lot of us are experiencing ingredient shortages right now, I thought there was no better time to post this Chocolate Depression Cake (also known as Crazy Cake or Wacky Cake), which was also born out of a time when ingredients were in limited supply—The Great Depression. This unique cake is rich and chocolatey without using any eggs, milk, or butter. A cake without butter?? So “wacky,” I know.
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How Do You Make Cake Without Eggs or Butter?
Butter usually serves to keep cake soft and tender by coating the flour molecules in fat and preventing them from developing a tough gluten matrix. In this recipe, butter is replaced with the cooking oil of your choice, which can achieve the safe effect, but with slightly less richness.
Eggs usually help leaven cakes by creating steam that puffs up the batter, then giving structure to the risen cake as the proteins firm up. In this cake, the eggs are replaced with a combination of vinegar and baking soda, which foams up quickly, making the cake light and fluffy. It’s almost like a giant version of my Chocolate Mug Cake, if you’ve ever tried that. Anne Byrn’s 1917 Apple Sauce Cake also uses a similar no-egg, no-butter style batter.
Is This the Best Chocolate Cake?
Haha, let’s be real, this cake doesn’t have butter. So while it’s probably not the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had, it’s a damn fine treat when your cabinets are bare. Not to mention it’s incredibly easy. Anyone can make this cake, and with very little cooking equipment or ingredients. For those two reasons alone, this is a good recipe to keep tucked in your back pocket (or your browser’s bookmarks). Also, it just happens to be vegan!
How to Serve Depression Cake
I made a super simple dairy-free chocolate icing to top my cake, but be aware that this type of dairy-free icing is super sweet because there is no fat to kind of mellow out the sweetness. If you’re not into super sweet icings, I suggest skipping the icing and just dusting your cake with powdered sugar after it cools (if you do it while the cake is still hot the powdered sugar will dissolve). Or, if you do have butter on hand, you can go with a more traditional chocolate buttercream frosting. A scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of an icing free slice of this cake would also be divine.
Chocolate Depression Cake (No Eggs, Butter, or Milk)
Servings 9 1 slice eachIngredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour ($0.23)
- 1 cup granulated sugar ($0.80)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1 tsp baking soda ($0.02)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ($0.21)
- 1/3 cup cooking oil* ($0.21)
- 1 Tbsp vinegar** ($0.06)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.30)
- 1 cup water ($0.00)
Chocolate Icing
- 1.5 cups powdered sugar ($0.10)
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder ($0.16)
- 3 Tbsp water ($0.00)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.30)
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder until well combined.
- Add 1 cup water to a liquid measuring cup, then add the vanilla extract and vinegar to the water.
- Add the oil to the bowl of dry ingredients, followed by the water mixture. Stir until the chocolate cake batter is mostly smooth. Make sure no dry flour remains on the bottom of the bowl.
- Pour the cake batter into an 8×8" or 9×9" baking dish. Transfer the baking dish to the oven and bake the cake for 35 minutes.
Chocolate Icing
- If using the chocolate icing, let the cake cool for at least an hour after baking before adding the icing.
- Wait until the cake is cool, then prepare the icing. Add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla extract to a bowl. Begin adding water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it forms a thick but pourable icing (about 3 Tbsp total). If you let the icing sit, it may begin to dry, but you can add a splash more water to make it moist again.
- Pour the icing over the cooled cake and spread until the cake is evenly covered. Slice the cake into 9 pieces and serve.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Glass Mixing Bowls
- Measuring Cups Spoons
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Whisk
Notes
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Chocolate Cake with No Butter, No Eggs, and No Milk – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl combine 1.5 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup granulated sugar, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, and ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder. Stir these ingredients together until they’re well combined.
Measure 1 cup water in a liquid measuring cup, then add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 Tbsp vinegar (any light vinegar, like white vinegar, rice vinegar, or apple cider vinegar). Add ⅓ cup cooking oil and the water mixture to the dry ingredients.
Stir until a thick cake batter forms. A few lumps are okay, but make sure no dry flour remains on the bottom of the bowl.
Pour the cake batter into an 8×8 or 9×9 inch baking dish.
Bake the cake in the fully preheated 350ºF oven for 35 minutes. If you plan to make the chocolate icing, cool the cake for at least an hour before making and adding the icing.
To make the icing, simply add 1.5 cups powdered sugar, ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa, and 1 tsp vanilla extract to a bowl. Starting with one tablespoon water, stir in water until it forms a thick icing (about 3 Tbsp total). The powdered sugar only needs a very small amount of liquid to melt into a thick icing. If you let the icing sit for a bit, it can dry out, but can be moistened again by stirring in another splash of water.
Pour the prepared icing over the baked and cooled cake, then spread into an even layer. Cut the cake into nine equal pieces, then serve!
It’s also really good with a glass of milk or scoop of ice cream. ;)
After making it: I did a half-recipe–just halved all the ingredients very precisely, and it worked. I don’t have baking pans so I baked it in little one-cup pyrex storage bowls, and I did it in the air fryer. It works! (I didn’t want the whole recipe because I live alone and might have eaten the whole thing!)
One question: Why the vinegar? I can taste it. I’m NOT a baker at all, but I do know that there’s a lot more chemistry involved than in (say) a pasta sauce or a steak. Is there something that can be sub’d for the vinegar?
And I was surprised that it didn’t taste sweeter, given the sugar in it. Any way to sweeten it up? Of course the icing helps, a LOT!
Good recipe.
The vinegar and baking soda foam up quickly when introduced to each other, making the cake light and fluffy and replacing the eggs! The point of the cake is to use all pantry ingredients, but of course, if it’s okay with you, you’re welcome to try using eggs instead! And yes, I find the icing is essential in getting enough sweetness in the cake!
Thanks for having the “jump to recipe” for those of who want a recipe without having to read the blog, even if it’s a great blog.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made it for my son’s birthday. He absolutely fell in love with it.
This review is only for the frosting, as I used a different, higher rated recipe for the cake itself. And WOW the frosting in this recipe is one of the most disgusting things I have ever tasted. Maybe the cake tastes good, but how does the frosting alone not lead to a bunch of 1 star reviews? Yuck. Very disappointed.
Jillian,
The icing only has two ingredients (three if you count vanilla), so if the end result is yucky, you must have started with some YUCK ingredients. Rating such a simple recipe one-star because you used old or low-quality ingredients isn’t fair to the recipe creator. If you made a recipe called Cereal with Milk that resulted in something gross-tasting, is it more likely your ingredients were bad or that you, somehow, were the only person here who managed to combine a box of breakfast and some milk into something inedible? 😂
I make this for my egg free friends. Although it does taste different to a typical cake, it’s also delicious and so simple to make. For me, it’s foolproof as well.
I loved this as a kid. 79 now. Never heard of it called a Depression Cake but that’s a great name. Now we used to spread a large Hershey’s chocolate bar on top for the frosting. Damn good. And especially cold. Well, I like my chocolate cold so that’s what I do. Thanks for the memories. I put the ingredients on my shopping list and the chocolate bar too. Give it a try.
My husband and I love this cake. The cake is not very sweet unless you want it to be, which is a good middle ground for us. The ingredients are simple enough that I was always have them on hand. I serve this at family events it’s a good cake to have with coffee.
This is a great recipe for when it’s snowing outside and you don’t have any eggs. Was way better than I thought possible considering the simple ingredients. I added some chocolate chunks and put raspberry jam on top instead of the icing. Was a hit on a snowy night!
I didn’t have enough powdered sugar for frosting so I instead just mixed some with cocoa powder and used a fine mesh strainer to sprinkle it all over the cake. The cake itself isn’t super sweet or flavorful but the added sugar and cocoa on top made it DELECTABLE. It’s perfect for someone who isn’t a sweet tooth or is looking to avoid so much sugar in their diet!
Had this cake without the frosting. It is very bland but it is a moist cake. Definitely needs the sweetened frosting. Will not be making this again.
Hi Beth, just wanted to pile-on to all the other 5 star reviews: This cake is SO GOOD! This is the first chocolate cake recipe I’ve ever tried and honestly I don’t see a reason to try another. I make it about once a month and we love alternating bites of cake with chugs of ice-cold milk. The only changes I make are using coffee instead of water and I make the chocolate buttercream in the link you provide.
Made this for a dinner with some of my dairy free friends. Everyone loved it! Even my friends that are not dairy free thought the cake was delicious. They even asked for the recipe! I served it with vanilla ice cream, and vanilla cashew based ice cream.
I made this last night following directions just as is & I wasn’t expecting what came out of the oven! OMG!! When I say this cake was moist & a chocolate lovers dream I’m not exaggerating!! It is the easiest cake to make & taste like it took all day to make it. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I also made the icing & put it on while the cake was still warm & it kinda melted into the cake just enough to make it kind of fudged on top but the icing still held up on top as an icing. If anybody is on the fence about making it please do bc you won’t be disappointed!
How long would you suggest hearing the cupcakes for? If we used this recipe for cupcakes…
Thanks so much!
I’d really need to test it to be sure, unfortunately. But if you just keep an eye on them in the oven and then test with a tooth pick when the center of the muffin is fully puffed up, that should work well. Make sure the tooth pick doesn’t come out with wet batter on it when inserted into the center of the cupcake.
I made the cake today and substituted 1 cup water for 1 cup of freshly brewed coffee. This made a difference in the cake for sure! The cake was delicious without any frosting too.
Great idea with the coffee!