Easy Chocolate Wacky Cake Recipe (aka Chocolate Depression Cake)

If you’ve been around here for long, you know I have a thing for chocolate and vintage recipes! The secret to this recipe is my addition of coffee. Don’t worry; it doesn’t taste like coffee, but rather, the chocolate flavor is enhanced noticeably.

Some of my favorite homemade chocolate treats include my sourdough chocolate sweet bread, these bakery-style double chocolate zucchini muffins, Grandma’s heavenly chocolate mayo cake or this chocolate beet cake.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Super Simple – This wacky cake comes together quickly with very minimal effort.
• Basic Ingredients – You likely already have all the ingredients needed for this recipe in your pantry. Check out this post for tips on keeping a well-stocked pantry.
• Healthier – Though I wouldn’t put chocolate cake in the “healthy food” category, but when you make it from scratch, you’re using whole-food ingredients without all the questionable ingredients in the store-bought alternative. So, in that sense, it’s definitely healthier!
• Inexpensive – Because this recipe doesn’t include eggs or dairy, it’s a less expensive option than some of the other homemade chocolate cake recipes.

Want to make a larger cake? Double the recipe to make a layer cake or bake it in a 9×13-inch pan.

Tips for the Best Chocolate Cake

When making chocolate cake, there are a few things you’ll want to make sure you do for the best results possible:

• Use Coffee – Though the recipe calls for water, I recommend you use half coffee and half water to enhance the chocolate flavor.
• Don’t Overmix – When mixing the dry and wet ingredients together, don’t overmix the ingredients. Overmixing is what causes cakes to be tough or dense. We want light and fluffy, so only stir the batter until the dry ingredients are incorporated.
• Make Cupcakes! – If you’d rather make chocolate Wacky cake cupcakes, just fill your muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350°F until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Pro Tip: Some crumbs on the toothpick are OK. However, you don’t want any wet batter.
• Add Frosting – Though you can certainly enjoy this chocolate cake without frosting, in my opinion, frosting makes everything better. You can grab my chocolate buttercream frosting recipe here.

How to Make Chocolate Wacky Cake

Ingredients Needed

• Flour – For this recipe, all-purpose or pastry flour works best.
• Cocoa Powder – This is where your chocolate preferences come in. Any cocoa powder will work, but you get to choose how dark you’d like to go!
• Vanilla Extract – Though store-bought vanilla extract will work just fine for this recipe, if you’d like to learn how to make homemade vanilla extract, check out my tutorial!
• Vinegar – Yes, vinegar sounds like a strange ingredient to add to a cake recipe, but it’s taking the place of the eggs here when combined with the baking soda to give the cake its rise.
• Oil – This recipe calls for any mild oil. Traditionally, lard would be used. However, I demonstrated with coconut oil in the video and have also made it with avocado oil. If you’d rather, you can use butter as well.
• Coffee – As I mentioned above, coffee isn’t listed as an ingredient in the recipe card; water is. But if you want to give your chocolate cake a boost in flavor, I highly recommend using half coffee and half water. Or, if you’re really a coffee lover, all coffee.

Check the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Step-by-Step Directions

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F. While the oven is preheating, measure all dry ingredients and place into a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Step 2: Stir together dry ingredients, making sure there are no large clumps.

Step 3: Make three small wells in the dry ingredients and add each individual wet ingredient (vinegar, vanilla extract and oil) to the wells.

Step 4: Pour the water (or coffee/water mixture) into the bowl, distributing evenly.

Step 5: Mix together the wet and dry ingredients.

Pro Tip: Don’t overmix, only stir until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Step 6: Pour cake batter into an 8×8-inch pan or an 8 ½-inch cast iron skillet and spread until smooth.

Step 7: Place into a 350°F oven and bake for 28-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Step 8: Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting or serving. Frost with my chocolate buttercream recipe or another frosting of choice. (You could even drizzle it with homemade chocolate gravy!)

Step 9: Slice, serve and enjoy!

Did you make this recipe? If you tried this chocolate depression-era cake or any other recipe on my website, please leave a🌟star rating and let me know how it went in the📝comments below! Thanks!

Storage & Freezing

This chocolate cake can be covered and stored at room temperature for a few days (if it’s not completely consumed the first day!).

To freeze: Allow the cake to cool completely, carefully remove it from the pan (or place a piece of parchment paper on a cutting board, then place that over the cake and carefully invert the cake so it comes out on the parchment). Then, carefully wrap the parchment around the cake, followed by a double layer of aluminum foil.

Don’t forget to label and date the cake so you know what it is tucked away in the freezer! Freeze for up to three months.

To thaw: Remove the cake from the freezer and allow it to cool on the counter at room temperature. After about 30 minutes, carefully remove the aluminum foil and parchment paper and transfer the cake to a serving platter (flip the cake over if it’s upside down). Allow the cake to thaw completely before frosting.

If you enjoyed chocolate wacky cake, you may want to try Grandmother’s date bread recipe. You know when it’s grandma’s recipe, it’s gonna be a good one!