Crazy Cake (a.k.a. Wacky Cake, Depression Cake) is a Depression Era cake that doesn’t require any eggs, butter, milk or bowls! You won’t believe how moist and delicious this cake is!
A DEPRESSION ERA CAKE
You’ll be so surprised how moist and chocolate-y this cake is even without eggs, milk and butter! It’s a fabulous go-to recipe for egg/dairy allergies as well! This cake was created during the Great Depression, when eggs, milk and butter were very hard to come by. Remember my favorite childhood Depression sandwich my grandparents made? People were pretty resourceful during those hard times. It took some creativity and baking science to create a cake without eggs, milk or butter. You don’t even need a bowl or mixer. Genius!
TIPS FOR MAKING CRAZY CAKE
- If you don’t want to mix this in the baking dish, you can combine all the ingredients in a bowl, then pour the batter in to a greased 8-inch square baking dish.
- Crazy Cake can be made with Gluten Free mixes! Many people have commented they have made this cake with Gluten Free mixes, and it’s wonderful.
- This can also be made into cupcakes!
- More cake flavors have been added since this post! Check out the whole list HERE! There are mug cake versions too!
- For a great, easy chocolate frosting (my favorite), I use the frosting recipe from The Yum Life!
- For a dairy free frosting recipe, head over to Oh She Glows for a simple 2-ingredient chocolate fudge frosting recipe!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
It’s called Crazy Cake (or Wacky Cake) because it doesn’t need any eggs, milk or butter, which is kinda crazy for cake making!
It is part of the leavening process! The vinegar reacts with the baking soda which is what makes the cake rise. You don’t taste the vinegar at all in the finished cake!
You can double this recipe, just use a 9×13 baking pan.
You get the moistness from the oil and it becomes so fluffy because of the chemical reaction between the vinegar and baking soda!
Yes! Readers have commented that they have made this with monk fruit sweetener, and it turned out perfect! I would think many sugar substitutes would work here, but I haven’t tested this recipe with anything other than real sugar, so if you try it, please come back and let me know!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR FULL RECIPE)
- all-purpose flour
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- granulated sugar
- baking soda
- salt
- white vinegar
- pure vanilla extract
- vegetable oil
- water
- plus optional ingredients for frosting (see recipe card)
HOW TO MAKE CRAZY CAKE:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix first 5 dry ingredients in a greased 8″ square baking pan. Make 3 depressions in dry ingredients – two small, one larger. Pour vinegar in one of the smaller depressions, vanilla extract in the other small depression and the vegetable oil in the third larger depression. Pour water over all. Mix well until smooth.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 35 minutes. Check with toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Cool. Top with your favorite frosting. Enjoy!
Note: Oven baking times may vary, be sure to check your cake to make sure you do not over bake.
CRAVING MORE CRAZY CAKE RECIPES?
Chocolate Crazy Cake (No Eggs, Milk, Butter or Bowls)
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE:
Dry Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
Optional frosting (not dairy free)
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- ¼ cup evaporated milk
- 2 Tablespoons salted butter (cut into chunks)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Mix first 5 dry ingredients in the prepared pan (flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt.)
- Make 3 depressions in the dry ingredients – two small, one larger.
- Pour vinegar in one of the smaller depressions. Pour the vanilla extract in the other smaller depression and the vegetable oil in third larger depression.
- Pour water over all. Mix well until smooth.
- Bake on middle rack of oven for 35 minutes. Check with toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Note: Oven baking times may vary, be sure to check your cake to make sure you do not over bake.
- Cool completely before frosting (if using). You can also just sprinkle with a dusting of powdered sugar.
To make the frosting:
- In a microwave-safe medium bowl, add in semi-sweet chocolate chips, evaporated milk, butter and vanilla extract.
- Microwave on full power for about 30 seconds. Note: it can be hard to tell if everything has melted so it's If not melted, microwave for an additional 15 seconds and stir. Repeat process until fully melted.
- Stir in the powdered sugar and mix until smooth and combined.
- Frost cooled cake.
Video
Notes
- This cake is wonderful with a simple dusting of powdered sugar, or top with your favorite frosting.
- The cake does not need to be kept refrigerated if it’s not frosted. Cover and it will last 3 days. If it is frosted, it will need to be kept refrigerated. Cover and refrigerate for up to 6 days.
- If you don’t want to mix this in the baking dish, you can combine all the ingredients in a bowl, then pour the batter in to a greased 8-inch square baking dish.
- You can sub vegetable oil with canola oil
- You can sub white vinegar with apple cider vinegar.
- Use the batter to make Crazy Cake Cup Cakes!
- Double the recipe using a 9×13 baking dish or make a Two-Layer Crazy Cake.
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- For a great, easy chocolate frosting (my favorite), I use the frosting recipe from The Yum Life!
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- For a dairy free frosting recipe, head over to Oh She Glows for a simple 2-ingredient chocolate fudge frosting recipe!
Lydia
I have been making this cake for about 20 yrs now, that is when my best friend gave it to me. Her mom-in-law gave it to her because her daughter was lactose intolerant. My fav flavor change over for this is maraschino cherries. Sub some of the water for cherry juice, chop up cherries, I have also used them along with the coca for choc cherry cake, everyone loved both versions. I too, have only used apple-cider vinegar (with the mom), people can never believe it has vinegar in it lol. Oh, I also save some of the juice to add to the frosting made with just powdered sugar and water.
Anonymous
We have made this cake for years in our family. My parents are depression age, but my grandfather owned a chicken hatchery during the depression. Egg shortage didn't happen to them. They made the cake just because it was that good! And it's continued!
G. Pettey
My daughter just turned 42 and I have been making this chocolate depression cake for her since she was tiny. We had no food allergies but did have limited income so this fit the bill. It has always been my daughters favorite as the middle stays so moist and chewy almost like a brownie. It is the one she always wants mailed to her for any special occasion. I will enjoy looking at the other flavors, and trying them out.
gayathri anand
You are a genius! Thank you so much for the recipe
Ann T Roslevich
I love this recipe and have made it many times. Thanks for sharing.
Anonymous
My mom said my Grandmother made a eggless, milkless, butterless cake a lot (s
mom was 1 of 13 kids) After WW11 they called it Victory Cake!
voelly
This recipe was given to me when I left the nest many many years ago by my mom who made it faithfully all the time of my youth. I have made it from time to time because it is easy and yummy! I volunteered to make "chocolate cake" for a birthday celebration on my husband's side of the family where there are many food allergies including dairy and nuts. Lo and behold… one of the other cakes was made by my SIL for her children (who are allergic to many foods) and her recipe was identical to mine! So this yummy cake
Recipe has withstood the test of time! I have always made it in a mixing bowl instead of in the pan, in different ingredient order. Always loved watching the reaction of the baking soda when the vinegar was dumped in! Try this easy recipe and thank you so much for sharing!
Anonymous
Thanks so much for posting this! I can't wait to try it for my babies 1st birthday! He has tons of food allergies. I'm wondering.. Do you think I could use quinoa flour in place of regular flour?! Thanks again!
Unknown
Grandma called this buccaroo cake. It had always been my favorite. Mom use to let us have it with milk for breakfast because she controlled the sugar unlike with most cereals. Thanks for the memory.
Robin in CNY
I know this recipe isn't new here but I was just led here by a friend on FB… We have made this cake, always called Wacky Cake here too, for over 50 years! When we were in school, mom baked the batter in flat bottom ice cream cones set in muffin tins for sharing @ school. I know now 5hats a no-no, but they are great for birthdays and all other parties…even every day!
marysweetlittlebluebird
Anonymous – here is a link to a Crazy/Wacky cake recipe that uses self rising flower – Copy & paste:
http://www.food.com/recipe/wacky-cake-99332
Jules
I just recently found your recipe and it is awesome. I have made it multiple times already. I have tried different frostings everytime. But think I agree with some of the other people.Powdered sugar sprinkled on top is perfect. The cake always comes out so super moist.
Becca Hayward
My Grandma taught me how to make this when I was 10 years old. We called it wacky cake and it was a cake I made for years until I honed my baking skills. I have not had it since I was like 14 and now I want it. I stumbled across this on a friends facebook page and now I must try it again. 😀 Thanks for the great memory hit!! Sometimes I would put a bit of crushed peppermint candies in for a mint hit that wasn't too strong like extract would be.
marysweetlittlebluebird
Elaine In Colorado – Here is the real story behind Depression Cake. This comment was left here in the comments section, by the great-grand daughter of the woman who created this wonderful cake:
Catharine Richards said..
"Here's the true history of the origins of this cake. My great grandmother, fondly known in the family as Gracky, developed recipes for the New York Times. During the years when things were rationed, Gracky developed this recipe and it was published in the Times for its readers. It was originally entitled Gracky's Wacky Cake. The original recipe also called for cider vinegar, only 1 1/4 c. of flour, and 6 T of oil. It was a mainstay dessert in our home growing up. The option of sprinkling powdered sugar on it was frequently practiced in our home as well as rubbing butter across the top as soon as it came out of the oven! 🙂
August 2, 2014 at 11:20 AM "
Elaine in Colorado
This looks like a great cake. Can't wait to try it.
It isn't called Depression Cake because it doesn't have milk, butter or eggs. Those things were actually easy to get, especially by rural residents who could produce them themselves.
Processed foods, like sugar and flour, were difficult to obtain because they were rationed. Americans were encouraged to forgo them in order to support the war effort and send them to the troops.
The "depression" in the name probably refers to the depressions in the batter, like a previous commenter posted.
Homemakers Scrapbook
Hi There
Don't know if this has been said before but any sort of vinegar works for this recipe. Also, I make this recipe frequently and I have found that it works just as well without making the three little depressions. This can be another time saver.
Lisca Meijer
I made this last night and it's so easy. We ate it today and there is not a scrap left! It is delish!
I'd never made a cake the American way (using cups rather than weighing) but it turned out perfect.
I used apple vinegar and also doubled the recipe as my cake tin is a lot bigger. Then I cut it in half horizontally and filled it with a choc cream I made. Sprinkled it with icing sugar through a pretty template and my cake was a great success.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I will now try one of the other ones.
Greetings from Spain,
Lisca
Cheryl L.
I made this cake, the Chocolate Wacky cake, for the very first time, yesterday. Here's what I can tell you…(1) I doubled the recipe and made cupcakes (2) they only took about 10 minutes to bake (3) they were awesome. Oh, and (4) one thing I did different, was instead of just water, I used strong coffee. It really came out incredible. Hubby ate so many, he wasn't hungry for dinner. lol…He kept saying how much he liked them and how good they were. So, for a more, deep rich chocolate flavor, use coffee in place of the water, cup for cup.
In just a bit, I will be making the vanilla one. God willing, it'll turn out as great and I'll make a strawberry whipped cream filling to go into the middle, a light coating of vanilla frosting and then covered in fondant and decorated, for mothers day.
Thanks a million for sharing these recipes. I really appreciate it.
Moriyah Shalom
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I came across it on Pinterest in March, just in time for our holiday season and I must have made 5 cakes in one week and since then, I have probably made it another 4 times and getting ready to make another one tonight and thought I should let you know that your recipe is bringing lots of smiles. 🙂
Laura Papsun
My teenage son has had milk and egg allergies (among a number of other foods) since he was an infant. Will enjoy giving this a try! The Ener-Gee Egg Replacer someone else mentioned is very good. Another easy egg replacement is 1 tbsp corn starch with 2 tbsp water.
Allison
My only concern (literally just put this in the oven to bake!) was that the batter wasn't very smooth – with one cup of water, it was quite chunky and dry. I added a few more half cups until I had a consistency similar to your images. Here's hoping it holds up for our dinner party tonight!
Anonymous
Thanks so much for the recipe and the link to the GF version! Tried the GF version and it was amazing! My boyfriend is the only one who can't have gluten, but no one else even noticed or believed me after eating it! Also, I decided to use coconut oil which made for a very moist cake…yum!
Anonymous
This cake is delicious! So happy you've shared. It's a hit every time we make it 🙂
Deb MacMillan
Made cupcakes with this recipe yesterday. Very easy to do. Love that there is no mixer required. (I had to bake them quite a bit longer than the recipe notes said, but that might have just been my oven.) I'll definitely be trying the other flavor variations.
Anonymous
Has anyone tried using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil?