Wacky Cake
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Wacky Cake, sometimes called Depression Cake, is a cake made without eggs or milk, or butter. It was called wacky because who would think you could make a cake without those essential ingredients?
When you lived through the Great Depression you figured out how to make a lot of things without crucial components; you just had to do it.
Wacky Cake
I enjoy making Wacky Cakes because I don’t care for the taste of eggs in cake. Plus Wacky Cake is also a VEGAN CAKE. It’s the perfect
Vegan Cake
I am NOT a vegan. What I don’t like is the taste of eggs in a cake. Generally, I don’t mind eggs too much, deviled or scrambled or whatever but in cake, I swear I can taste them.
For me, that’s a real turn-off, so I enjoy having a cake that doesn’t have that taste. I mean I’ll eat cake WITH eggs too. But having this vegan cake recipe in my repertoire means I can feed vegan friends cake anytime I want. And what vegan wouldn’t want a piece of this cake??
Depression Cake
This Wacky cake is also called a Depression Cake because it uses no eggs, no milk, no butter. All the things that were hard to come by during the depression.
But how does that even work? Human ingenuity, a desire for cake and a little chemistry. The recipe uses the power of vinegar and baking soda to get its lift. This means you don’t have a lot of time to get them in the oven for baking once they’re mixed up and ready to go. Time is of the essence here, or it won’t rise in the pan.
And you can use just about any oil in place of the butter as well. I’m pretty sure the original called for lard or oleomargarine, but in my recipe, I’m using coconut oil. I love coconut oil in this cake, it’s such a complimentary flavor!
Choices for Vegan Oils:
- coconut oil
- vegetable shortening
- vegan butter
- vegetable oil
- butter-flavored vegetable shortening
Wacky Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups cane suagr
- 6 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup coconut oil
- 2 cups water
- 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
- 1 TBSP coffee
Instructions
- pre-heat oven to 350˚
- grease pans, either 2 8 inch round pans or a 9X13
- sift the dry ingredients together into a large mixing bowl
- warm the coconut oil, water, vinegar and water together
- once the coconut oil has melted pour the liquids in with the dry ingredients and stir to combine
- pour in pan/s and bake 22-25 minutes for layers, 30-35 minutes or until done for 9X13
Nutrition
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Thanks for sharing this. I had never heard of this cake but it will be great for those times when you want to bake something sweet without having to run to the store for milk and eggs.
That looks so good. I can’t even imagine making a cake without eggs and butter. I need to try this recipe out over the holidays. Pinned!!