Chocolate Depression Cake (No Eggs, Milk or Butter)
This chocolate depression cake is made without eggs, milk or butter, and it still bakes up fudgy in the middle and soft on top, a lot like a from-scratch devil’s food cake. Everything is stirred together in one bowl and baked in an 8-inch pan in about 35 minutes, and there’s a good chance every ingredient is already in your pantry.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Chocolate Depression Cake
- Serves: 4 people
- Main Ingredients: all-purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, granulated sugar, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, vinegar, vanilla extract
- Why You'll Love It: Featuring no dairy or eggs, this chocolate depression cake is both deliciously fudgy yet fluffy, like a devil's food cake made from scratch.
Cakes like this got popular during the Great Depression, when eggs, milk and butter were hard to come by, which is also why you’ll hear it called crazy cake or wacky cake. We like it plain as a snack cake, but it dresses up nicely for company too.
How do you make chocolate depression cake?
Stir together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/3 cup cocoa, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Add 1 teaspoon vinegar, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1/3 cup vegetable oil and 1 cup water, and stir until combined. Pour it into a greased 8-inch pan and bake at 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. No eggs, milk or butter needed.
Why This Cake Works Without Eggs or Dairy
When the vinegar meets the baking soda, the reaction gives the batter the lift that eggs would normally provide. Oil stands in for butter and keeps the crumb moist, and plain water lets the cocoa flavor come through rich and deep.
The one step I don’t skip is stirring the dry ingredients together first. I’m usually all about dumping everything in a bowl and going for it, but when the cocoa and baking soda are already spread through the flour, the batter turns smooth in just a few stirs.
Ingredients for Chocolate Depression Cake
- Unsweetened cocoa powder: All of the chocolate flavor comes from the cocoa, so use one you like the taste of.
- Vinegar: Plain white vinegar reacts with the baking soda to make the cake rise, and you won’t taste it once the cake is baked.
- Vegetable oil: I usually use refined coconut oil, which doesn’t have any coconut flavor, but any neutral oil works here.
- Cinnamon: Just half a teaspoon adds a little warmth behind the chocolate without making it taste like a spice cake.
You’ll find the exact amounts in the recipe card below.
Helpful Tips Before You Start
- Spray the pan before you start mixing. The vinegar and baking soda start working as soon as they meet, so the batter should go into the oven right after it’s stirred.
- Stir just until you can’t see any dry flour. A few tiny lumps will bake out.
- Start checking at 30 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
How to Make Chocolate Depression Cake
1Mix the Dry Ingredients
Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray an 8-inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon until it all looks evenly brown.
2Add the Wet Ingredients
Pour the vinegar, vanilla, oil and water right on top of the dry mixture.
3Stir the Batter
Stir until the batter is smooth and glossy with no dry pockets of flour left.
4Pour into the Pan
Pour the batter into the greased dish and spread it out to the corners.
5Bake
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6Serve Warm or Frost
Eat it warm right out of the pan, or let it cool completely before frosting. The day I took these photos, I spread a can of store-bought frosting over the top.
Frosting and Serving Ideas
For a cake that stays dairy-free, keep the topping simple with a dusting of powdered sugar. If dairy isn’t a concern, creamy chocolate frosting makes it taste like a classic frosted sheet cake, and old-fashioned peanut butter icing turns it into a chocolate and peanut butter treat.
For something light and marshmallowy, spread on a batch of foolproof 7-minute frosting, just keep in mind that it’s made with egg whites. A scoop of vanilla ice cream on a warm square is hard to beat, and on a cold night it’s perfect next to a mug made with homemade hot chocolate mix.
If you love a chocolate dessert made from pantry staples, my chocolate cobbler recipe with food allergy options is this cake’s gooey, spoonable cousin.
Chocolate Depression Cake FAQs
Can I bake this batter as cupcakes?
This batter bakes into lovely cupcakes. Fill lined muffin cups about three-quarters full and bake at 350°F for 15 to 20 minutes, checking with a toothpick at 15.
Is chocolate depression cake dairy-free and egg-free?
The cake itself has no eggs, milk or butter. Just check your topping, since most store-bought and homemade frostings are made with butter or milk.
Does depression cake need frosting?
We usually eat it plain and warm from the pan, the way you’d serve a snack cake. Frosting is a nice extra for birthdays or when company’s coming.
Chocolate Depression Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch baking dish with a non-stick cooking spray.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Add in the vinegar, vanilla, oil, and water, and stir until well combined. Pour the cake batter into the baking dish.1 teaspoon vinegar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1 cup water
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Eat the chocolate cake warm or cool completely and frost, if desired.
Just took the cake out of the oven !
I sprinkled heath bar bits and milk chocolate chips on the top of the cake, waited a few minutes, then spread the melted chips evenly.
It makes a delicious frosting for a fabulous cake !
Thank you for the recipe! I’m going to try it. It sounds delicious. A 13×9 cake is a lot for my little family to eat. This is the perfect sized cake and being chocolate makes it even better.
Christy, do you use regular vinegar in the depression cake or apple cider vinegar? Thanks for all your wonderful recipes. God Bless.
Can you please post the recipe for the chocolate icing. It looks as delicious as the cake!
She said she used canned frosting on this cake. I’m sure her website has recipes for homemade frosting though.
This is *almost* my grandma’s recipe for what she called War Cake (because during the war you didn’t have an abundance of milk and eggs). Her recipe did not have cinnamon in it. I mix it directly in the baking dish because this does not need to go in a greased and floured pan because you serve it directly from the pan. We always topped it with a generous portion of vanilla buttercream frosting. I mix all my dry ingredients together than make three holes, one for the water, one for the oil, and one for the vinegar. Very quick mix up with very little clean up.
That was exactly my thought!! We have made that cake for years, the first one my kids learned to make, and we always mixed it right in the pan.
We all remember the time my son just dropped the fork he was stirring with into the cake and it got baked. We didn’t find it until we started to cut the cake and there was “something” there!!
Hi Christy! Thanks for this delicious and ingredient saving chocolate cake. Found it very intriguing without eggs or milk as all of us are trying to keep from using excess items in the kitchen when we could make these stretch for other meals. Decided to see if these would also work as cupcakes and they turned out beautifully; I got 16 from this recipe. Fill your cupcake liners 1/2 -2/3 full, bake at 350 for 15 minutes or til toothpicks come out clean. In these times of quarantined at home mindless nibbling, having the portion control with individual cupcakes should come in handy. Blessings to you, you’re one to all of us!
I am so glad you gave it a try!! Thanks for letting us know how the cupcakes turned out!
Perfect timing! I have been trying to order Devil’s Food Cake Mix for weeks without success! I wanted the cake mix for the chocolate cherry cake recipe where you add a can of cherry pie filling to the mix. Do you have any suggestions for adapting it for this recipe? I should be able to figure it out, but I have “quarantine brain” right now! I think it is in pajama mode! Thank you in advance!
Have a most blessed day!
I have really been craving chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, but didn’t want a big ole cake for just my husband & myself, so, perfect timing on this 8 x 8 cake! Thanks Christy! 🙂