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.
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.
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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. ;)
Hmmm… Amazing cake… it looks so yummy
Amazingly tasty and budget friendly recipe. Definitely a keeper!
Thank you for this awesome recipe! I have made it so many times. Two times I modified the recipe, but I got terrible results. The first time I replaced cocoa powder with ginger powder, but the cake didn’t rise at all! It was just a lump of dough. The second was pouring the batter in muffin molds, it was fluffy but really wet, it broke into small pieces when I got it out of mold. Could you guide me on these two. Thank you.
Hmm, honestly those two things are a mystery to me. I’m not sure why the ginger would affect the leavening and I’m not sure why the texture would be so drastically different when using a muffin tin.
Hi David! Cocoa is naturally acidic, so when it is combined with the baking soda in this recipe (baking soda is a base) they react and produce CO2 bubbles that make the cake rise. When you replaced the cocoa with ginger, the baking soda had nothing acidic to react with and create bubbles so it stayed a lump of dough. You could try experimenting and adding a tbsp of apple cider vinegar or some other acid if you want to replace the naturally acidic cocoa with ginger.
For the muffin tin problem, most eggless cakes are rather fragile because they do not have eggs to bind them together. When I make eggless cupcakes, I usually use foil or paper wrappers to help the cupcakes stay together. Hope that helps!
I’ve made this numerous times since the pandemic began. I am gluten free so I use gluten free flour and everything I bake is sugar free for my diabetic SO, so I use Splenda. Everything else is the same and it works every time. Thanks for this! ❤️
Have made this recipe 4 times in 3 weeks and easy to covert to UK measuring/temperature etc. This is so good, my other half said it was as good as his Mam’s! And has asked me to stop making it cos it’s sooo good. Thank you!
As someone with an anaphylactic dairy allergy, this type of recipe is a lifesaver.
Suggestion to anyone else who likes coffee and might have a little leftover from their morning pot: replace the 3tbsp of water for the icing with 3tbsp of coffee, makes a mocha icing which cuts the sweetness a bit and adds a nice punch to the cake.
Not sure what happened, but my batter was A LOT more liquid than the recipe describes! Don’t be afraid if you’re batter is very loose—I added extra flour and cocoa powder out of fear. I was skeptical, but this cake truly is very good! You wouldn’t know the difference.
It may sound weird, but I substituted the cooking oil with some bacon grease I had in my fridge from last week’s brunch. It worked really well and gave the cake a chocolaty-smoky taste! I tried a peanut butter frosting on top. If you like chocolate-dipped bacon, try it!
That doesn’t sound weird at all to me, it sounds AH-MAZ-ING! :D
Thank you for sharing this delightfully easy, mouthwateringly delicious recipe. Have baked this cake several times since I first tried it a few weeks back and it’s been a huge success each time!
This cake is like a magic trick! I really could not tell that it was any different from a normal cake. I wanted something a little smaller than my usual two layer cake recipe (but didn’t feel like doing the math) Not sure if it makes a difference either way but I did use boiling water to help bloom the cocoa. I think this cake is even better the next day.
When you’re on a low-fat diet, this is the best cake ever! :)
Could I double the recipe and bake in a 9×13 pan?
This looks like what my mom called wacky cake or dump cake. I can’t remember if those recipes had eggs or milk. We only have three in our house right now, so a smaller cake is always good. I’ll have to try that soon.
I have already made this a couple times since you posted the recipe. Delicious and easy. This past time I poured the batter into a cupcake tin to make 9 decadent chocolate muffins that were filled to the brim. I wanted to comment so others would know the recipe also worked well as a cupcake/muffin.
I actually found a similar version a couple of years ago because my neighbors daughter is allergic to eggs, nuts and dairy. This weekend is my friends birthday and one of the women is lactose intolerant so I immediately volunteered to make this…it’s delicious!