This chocolate Depression Cake is perfect for so many occasions and is a top favorite of my cake recipes. Did you know you can make a chocolate cake with vinegar, and without eggs? It might seem strange, but you won’t taste it in the finished cake, and it can help make it SO moist.
It might seem odd to make war cake for a celebration – but when times are tough, we all need a dessert recipe to look forward to! This depression cake was born out of rationing in times of war and economic depression. No eggs or dairy are necessary to still have a delectable chocolate cake! (Note: The frosting DOES have dairy – so plan accordingly for frosting substitutes if necessary!)
If you are looking for more chocolate, I love to mix up my flavors and go for a Milky Way Cake or maybe one reminiscent of Ding Dongs. But if chocolate isn’t your thing, there’s always Cherry Chip! Any way you slice it, cake, is a celebration.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It uses a few ingredients: Especially if you are making just the depression cake, this is the perfect recipe to make up when the fridge is looking bare!
- Allergy-friendly: This depression cake doesn’t have eggs or dairy (NOTE: The frosting DOES have dairy so plan accordingly for frosting substitutes.) making it perfect for allergies. Just use a different frosting that fits your needs.
- Easy to make: Only one bowl is needed! Just mix the cake and bake.
Ingredients Needed (See the recipe card below for the full recipe!)
I’ve highlighted some of the ingredients below with some relevant notes. Aside from this, the ingredients needed are pretty basic for this depression cake!
Depression Cake Ingredients:
- Flour – Regular all-purpose works best here. You can also try a 1-for-1 gluten-free flour blend if necessary.
- Sugar – Though sugar was also rationed during the war, there was still plenty for baking cakes!
- Cocoa powder – Unsweetened cocoa powder gives us a great chocolate flavor without excessive sweetness.
- Water – This is our main liquid to bring the cake together.
- Oil – Vegetable or canola oil is the main fat in this cake, taking the place of butter.
- Vinegar – What? Yup! You won’t taste this at all – and it is our egg replacer.
- Powdered Sugar – When combined with butter, we have a magnificent buttercream to top our cake!
Optional Chocolate Frosting Recipe:
- powdered sugar
- unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- honey
- heavy cream
- pure vanilla extract
Substitutions
- Dairy – no heavy cream for the frosting? Whole milk will also work, but you don’t want to reduce the fat any further.
- Extract – try mint or almond in place of vanilla for a fun new frosting!
How to Make Depression Cake
*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*
Spray a metal cake pan with cooking oil, and preheat your oven so you are ready to go.
STEP 1. Whisk the dry. Add dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and whisk well to combine (Image 1).
Tip: For the best depression cake recipe, prepare your pan, heat the oven, and measure everything out before starting the batter so that you will have the proper end texture since the vinegar and baking soda react to make it rise, instead of eggs.
STEP 2. Add the wet. Add all wet ingredients to the bowl and stir to combine (Image 2).
STEP 3. Bake. Bake the cake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the highest point contains just a few moist crumbs (Image 3). Let cool completely (Image 4).
Frosting Recipe
This recipe for frosting does use dairy products. However, you can use the frosting recipe or store-bought recipe of your choice if you need to make it without dairy.
STEP 4. Whip icing. Add frosting ingredients, minus vanilla and cream, to a large bowl and whip with a mixer (Images 5 and 6).
STEP 5. Frost. Add in vanilla and enough cream to make a spreadable texture, then frost your cooled cake (Images 7 and 8).
Recipe Pro Tips
- Allow to fully cool. The cake needs to be 100% cooled in order for the frosting to not melt!
- Mix and go. Because the vinegar and baking soda react for your raising action, you need to mix up the batter and have the pan and oven ready!
Recipe FAQs
You use your basics of flour and sugar, but we are avoiding using eggs or any dairy! This cake was born out of American war rations and needing to save those ingredients for other uses. The addition of vinegar replaces eggs and there’s simple vegetable oil in place of butter.
Yes! While eggs are traditionally a leavening item, we are swapping them out for vinegar. This will give us the raising action we need and you won’t even know the eggs are missing.
Store depression cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. It will keep longer in the refrigerator, but keep it tightly covered to keep it from drying out.
What to Serve with Depression Cake
I know the point of this cake is to go simple and make do with what you have, but the icing already takes it up a notch! And of course, to make a true celebration, you absolutely must serve next to a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
More Cake Recipes You’ll Love
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
Originally published: December 2023
Republished and updated: April 2025
Recipe
Depression Cake
Video
Equipment
- 9×13 pan
- Large mixing bowl
- Small mixing bowl
- Whisk
- cooling rack
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ⅓ cups water
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
Frosting:
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, 1 stick
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake:
- Spray a 9×13 metal pan with nonstick cooking spray and preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl, whisk all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 ½ cups granulated sugar, 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt
- Add in water, vegetable oil, vanilla and white vinegar and whisk until ingredients are fully combined and smooth.1 ⅓ cups water, ⅔ cup vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- Pour the batter into the metal pan and bake for 28-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached.
- Place pan on a wire rack to allow it to cool completely before icing.
Frosting:
- Prepare your frosting by mixing softened butter, cocoa powder, and honey in a medium bowl with a hand mixer on low. Mix just until combined and then add vanilla and heavy cream. Run on medium until nice and smooth.1 ½ cups powdered sugar, 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons honey, 3 tablespoons heavy cream, 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- Spread over cake and enjoy.
Notes
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. It will keep longer in the refrigerator, but keep it tightly covered to keep it from drying out.
- Honey in the frosting – You can leave the honey out of the frosting if desired, as it will be sweet enough but the honey gives it the shiny glaze look that is beautiful.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Sha says
This is definitely a must-try! We are addicted to this chocolate depression cake, so delicious and pleasing!
April says
This is one of my favorite cakes! It always comes out perfectly moist and chocolaty!
Melissa says
This cake is simply AMAZING and PERFECT!! This is for sure going to be made any change I get!