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)
- ½ tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1 tsp baking soda ($0.02)
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder ($0.21)
- ⅓ 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)
- ¼ 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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Equipment
- Glass Mixing Bowls
- Measuring Cups Spoons
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Whisk
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!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. ;)
Great recipe. I subbed doctored it up a bit. I used brown sugar instead of sugar. Almond milk instead of water. Added some cinnamon, honey, and dark karo syrup. Pour the icing on while hot. Delicious.
I made two of these- one in a square pan, then doubled the recipe and poured it into a Bundt pan. It was ready in 35 minutes! It was also easy to pop out of the Bundt pan. I had used oil spray. I had a different recipe for the frosting- peanut butter-cocoa sweetened with honey. (That was all I had). It calls for something looser and liquidy- maple syrup! I guess, I could’ve added one tablespoon of water to loosen it up some. But it was so good anyway. The cake was fluffy and moist. The frosting is delectable. Yum!!!! GREAT recipe!
OMg Delicious So Moist and this Chocolate Lover’s Favorite! Tyfs!🎊👏🏾👏🏾😁😋😋😋😁❤❤ It’s in my recipe box under the quick easy Delicious Chocolate Cake Banner!! I made the icing too Buttercream!!
To SAVE a bit MORE MONEY, you can decrease the amount of cocoa powder to 3 level TBL., and the recipe still comes out great. Honest.
(This saves 2 TBL and 1 tsp of cocoa powder each time. Cocoa powder will get even more expensive, so I wanted to pass this idea along.)
RE: Vanilla extract
There was a lot of damage done to vanilla orchid crops the last few years, so I personally no longer add vanilla extract to chocolate recipes, as vanilla is more expensive, and that’s before tariffs. I should experiment with other people’s ideas of subbing coffee for some of the water, though. That sounds great!
thumbs up
Oh, and I used 1 cup of McCafe espresso made in a Keurig coffeemaker, instead of plain water.
I made this cake today. I poured the batter into a loaf pan, and had added about 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts. I baked it 35 to 40 minutes at 350F. It was delicious! Next time, I will try it with the frosting!
This is the only cake I make for birthdays. I do sub coffee for the water. I’ve used both instant coffee, day old coffee or fresh. Always turns out.
This was surprisingly really good! I wanted to make something sweet but didn’t have the typical ingredients for a cake, so I opted for this recipe. It was so easy to make and turned out rich and fluffy. The icing isn’t my favorite, but I would just replace it with a normal frosting recipe. Totally will make again!
I love this recipe! It’s so easy to make. It’s very delicious along with the frosting! This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe!
This is an incredibly moist and delicious cake. It’s also the easiest cake I’ve ever made! It’s even easier than a cake mix! No sifting, no greasing the pan and no mixer needed! I served it to company, and they raved! This will be my go to desert when I want to serve something extraordinarily delicious with hardly any effort. In fact I’m going to bake it again for company in a few days.
Can you swop the sugar for splenda?
We don’t experiment with sugar alternatives so I’m not certain how it would turn out! I’m sure it would work but obviously it’s not going to taste quite the same.
Moist, delicious. This may be the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made. I can’t stop eating it! 😋
delicious thanks for helping
I haven’t made this because I’m allergic to chocolate, but I’m vegan and I love cake. So, I wondered if a lemon, cherry, pineapple, or other flavor would work.
Hi, Tenderloin ~ There is also a recipe for “Applesauce Wacky Cake”: Instead of cocoa powder, add 1 and 1/4 teaspoon allspice to the dry ingredients. Make two “wells” in the dry ingredients, and put 1/3 cup oil in one, and 1 TBL vinegar in the other. Then, pour 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup UNsweetened applesauce over everything, and proceed with recipe as usual.
NOTE: I bake it for 30 minutes. You can also decrease the oil to 5 TBL if you like, which doesn’t change the result. (It saves you 1 tsp of oil, which isn’t a lot, but, nowadays every little bit helps.)