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. ;)
Thank you very much for inspiration. I’m not very into baking and I’m vegan. So this is the cake exactly for me. Baking shorter time I turned it to the brownie cake. I skipped icing, but added soaked raisins and soaked nuts into batter.
I made this cake for my birthday. It was early 2021, and everything was still locked down. This was easy to put together and gave the evening a sense of occasion. I increased the cocoa to 1/2 cup and the whole family enjoyed the cake served with a dusting of powdered sugar. I used this recipe as the basis for my son’s birthday “dirt cake” made with mascarpone frosting, cake crumbles and gummy worms. My kids regularly request this for dessert, I’ve never made the icing.
I followed the recipe exactly and agree with Beth that this is not the world’s best cake. Still, I will probably make the cake again and try it with buttercream frosting. I sampled the cake by itself and liked the fact that it was not too sweet. I think the icing is what is turning me off.
Has anyone doubled this recipe to use in a character pan? My grandson is allergic to dairy and eggs. I want to make him a dinosaur cake for his birthday, but it’s a big pan. Would this cake still come out light and fluffy under those circumstances? Vegan cakes are so dense and don’t rise in the center of the cake. :(
Hi Rita. I have been using this recipe for decades & only recently realised it is vegan! It’s just a beautiful cake with a lovely texture. It has been the cake of choice for my 3 kids birthdays for most of their lives. I’ve doubled it, 1 & a half’d it, used all sorts of different pans, made tiered cakes all with great success! I will often swapped half the water for coffee for a deeper chocolate taste. My only tip would be to wait until it’s fully cooled to ice it & it will need a thin crumb coat for character cakes & the like.
Good luck & bake with abandon! 😁😁
the cake was fine but the icing tho…..I could feel the icing particles in my mouth and I thought that it was the baking soda but no….I think the icing sugar should be melted in the microwave before pouring it onto the cake so you would get the texture of the particles
Did you sift the powdered sugar?
Sounds like my kind of cake! Thank you so much for this recipe. I will definitely make this.
Don’t let this cake’s humble description fool you. It’s as good as any chocolate cake and so moist and fluffy! I’m not a very good baker, and this cake turned out amazing for me. I made a peanut butter chocolate cream cheese frosting to go with it and added grated fresh ginger to the batter for a kick. So yummy and versatile. Boyfriend is happy (thanks, Beth!).
Thank you so much for the base recipe.
During the pandemic, I have made some version of this cake pretty much once a week. Lots of changes and variations (adding nuts, adding cinnamon, adding orange rind). Then I took off from the chocolate all together. In the latest version, I used pineapple juice instead of water and vinegar, got rid of the chocolate, and topped with a sugar-spice-nut swirl for spiced coffee cake. I think preserved lemon-ginger cake is next on the agenda.
I think this is my new favorite chocolate cake recipe. Great texture and flavor. I used apple cider vinegar and olive oil. I added a little orange extract as well. We love orange chocolate in this house. This cake will be made many times again in the future.
Love this cake! It’s one of my go-to’s when I want to throw together a quick dessert.
Also I added a tweak to the icing in order to cut the sweetness but use the same basic recipe. Just replace the 3 tbs water with strong coffee.
Used GF flour and palm sugar and this was still delish. Also made as cupcakes instead; they were done in about 20 minutes. Thanks for the easy (and allergy-friendly) recipe!
HI~
I made it yesterday and it tasted so good. It’s my first time making a cake without eggs and butter. I was surprised that the cake was so moist and soft. It’s also not too sweet! Thank you.
We love this recipe, it is perfect for those baking with allergies in mind We sub-ed a wheat free flour for the AP flour, but it turned out amazing.
This was super easy and delicious. I wasn’t expecting much because of the disclaimer in the recipe that it’s not the best chocolate cake ever, but it far exceeded my expectations.
My grandmother got this same recipe from a newspaper during WW2, except with a vanilla frosting. With so many shortages papers would often publish recipes that could work around them, this one conserving eggs and butter. My favorite since I was a little kid.