If you don’t have eggs, milk or butter on hand but still want to bake a homemade cake, you can make this deliciously moist Great Depression-era chocolate cake, also known as Wacky Cake, Crazy Cake or War Cake. Topped with the best chocolate buttercream frosting, it’s a treat that the whole family will love.
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.
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Quick Look at This Recipe
- ✅ Recipe Name: Chocolate Wacky Cake
- 🕒 Ready In: ~75 minutes
- 👪 Yield: 1 8×8″ cake or 8 servings
- 🍽 Calories: 282 per slice (without frosting)
- 🥄 Tools: A bowl, spatula and measuring utensils, plus a cast iron pan or an 8×8 inch cake pan.
- ❄️ Freezer Friendly: Yes – allow the cake to cool completely, wrap it tightly and freeze for up to three months. (Full freezing and defrosting instructions are below.)
- ⭐ Why You’ll Love It: Delicious, minimal ingredients, but still a decadent and company-worthy dessert, and it whips up in 15 minutes (plus baking and cooling time).
- 👩🍳 Tip: Don’t sleep on the coffee recommendation! I promise you don’t taste it, but if you made two cakes (one with coffee and one without), I’m confident that you’ll never skip the coffee again!
Watch Me Make This Recipe
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.
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Key Ingredients Needed
Check the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
- 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, home-rendered 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.
How to Make Chocolate Wacky Cake
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!
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!
Did you make this chocolate Depression-era cake recipe? If so, please leave a star rating ⭐ and your comments in the recipe card below. Then, snap a photo of your wacky cake and tag me on social media @melissaknorris so I can see!
Chocolate Wacky Cake (aka Depression Era Cake, Crazy Cake or War Cake)
Equipment
- Medium Mixing Bowl
- Spatula
- Measuring Utensils
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour all-purpose or pastry
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 6 Tablespoons oil melted coconut oil, lard, butter or avocado oil
- 1 cup water or 1/2 cup cold coffee, 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. While the oven is preheating, measure all dry ingredients and place into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Stir together dry ingredients, making sure there are no large clumps.
- Make three small wells in the dry ingredients and add each individual wet ingredient (vinegar, vanilla extract and oil) to the wells.
- Pour the water (or coffee/water mixture) into the bowl, distributing evenly.
- Mix together the wet and dry ingredients.
- Don’t overmix, only stir until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.
- Pour cake batter into an 8×8-inch pan or an 8 ½-inch cast iron skillet and spread until smooth.
- Place into a 350°F oven and bake for 28-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting or serving. Frost with my chocolate buttercream recipe or another frosting of choice.
- Slice, serve and enjoy!
Notes
- 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.
The recipe is wrong, this cake won’t rise much because it calls for only 1 tsp of vinegar, it is supposed to be 1 TBSP!!
You’re incorrect. This recipe is almost 90 years old and the 1 teaspoon is correct. I’ve been making it for over 20 years.
I was skeptical and I was wrong! Very good and moist. I appreciate that is is only an 8×8 and not a full size cake. Thank you!
I’ve made this cake may times and it never fails. It a wonderful, simple cake that is moist and delicious. I’ve found other variations (both an apple and a lemon) as well. I haven’t tried the lemon one yet, but the apple one is great too.
I tried to give this a 5 star rating, but it didn’t save that in my last comment.
Thank you!
I love lemon, I’ll have to try that version. Thank you
Hi.
Would u please post lemon and apple recipes ..
Would luv to try them.
Thx
Laura
Or email me the recipes thx
I was a little skeptical about if this cake would end up tasting like a rich cake, but it really did turn out delightful! It’s delicious and not too sweet, I love that we can now make cake even without some of the typical cake ingredients.
This is also known as “cockeyed cake” and I have made it for years as did my mom. It seemed dry last time I made it so I will accept any suggestions that you might have to improve the situation, but it is a delicious cake! Now that I know you can make it gluten free I will use that.when my soon-to-be daughter-in-law is here to share it with us.
can you use fresh milled flour in this recipe?
This can also be made gluten free! I have used this recipe for my son for years as he is allergic to gluten, dairy, eggs and other foods.
Can’t wait to try this!
I wonder if chicory would work if you didn’t have coffee?