Chocolate Depression Cake

One of my favorite pastimes is sitting down with a cookbook, devouring every word like an unputdownable novel. Lately, I've been able to sift through not only my own growing collection but also the sauce and batter-splattered cookbooks from my parents' and grandparents' collections. I’ve found lots of inspiration in these old books—retro gems and forgotten favorites waiting to be rediscovered and rejigged.

When someone told me about a vintage and unconventionally titled recipe, Depression cake, I was absolutely intrigued. Poring through my cookbooks and trawling through sites with old recipes, I discovered a recipe that hardly varied between sources, all without butter, eggs, or milk.

After testing, tweaking, and experimenting, I found Depression cake to be an easy vegan chocolate cake with the nostalgic taste and texture of the supermarket bakery chocolate sheet cake I remember from childhood birthday parties. It’s velvety, moist, and unmistakably chocolate. 

It's cliché, but this really is the recipe to save for impromptu visitors or celebrations. You can quickly make this cake without a trip to the store, and serve it to pretty much everyone, no matter their dietary restrictions. It’s vegan, free of most allergens, can be made with gluten-free one-to-one flour, and above all, fluffy and delicious.

What Is Depression Cake?

Depression cake gets its name from the Great Depression, when ingredients like milk, butter, and eggs were either too expensive or in short supply, hence their omission. 

Recipes like this were developed so families could still make a sweet treat in times of scarcity by replacing expensive ingredients with affordable alternatives. For example, the vinegar in this cake not only activates the baking soda but the acid reacts with the gluten to create a spongy, fluffy texture even without costly eggs—all without adding a vinegary taste.

You’ll also find this recipe with the name wacky cake, crazy cake, wowie cake, or WWII cake. Depression cake is the name that stuck, but it actually dates further back to at least World War I, when it was published as war cake. 

My Tweaks for a Better Depression Cake

I noticed a blaring missed opportunity to use one of my easy tricks for unleashing the most chocolate flavor—blooming the cocoa powder. Blooming cocoa powder is when you mix the cocoa with a hot liquid, often water, before adding it to the batter. This technique intensifies and releases extra flavors and aromas locked in the cocoa, which you’ll notice instantly as the smell of steaming hot cocoa wafts from the bowl.

I tried using hot coffee instead of water to bloom the cocoa and loved the mocha flavor, opting for coffee in the glaze too. For a subtler flavor boost, you can try a half-and-half mix of coffee and water.

When baking with chocolate, I always include some brown sugar, so in my version of this cake, I used both brown sugar and granulated sugar. The added molasses in brown sugar complements the chocolate and makes a softer, moister cake.

My Favorite Depression Cake Variations

Considering there's no butter, eggs, or milk, it’s surprising just how good this cake is, but the simple batter is also a jumping-off point for adding your own twist. I couldn’t resist testing a few variations, and these were my two favorites:

• Olive oil chocolate cake: use a flavorful extra virgin olive oil in place of the neutral vegetable oil, and swap balsamic vinegar for the apple cider vinegar.
• A fudgier cake: increase the amount of cocoa powder to 1/3 cup, use 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar, and add 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.

Other Swaps and Upgrades

For some easy swaps, you can substitute some or all of the water or coffee for another liquid such as milk, buttermilk, orange juice, or even red wine for an adults-only cake. You can bloom cocoa powder in almost any hot liquid, but skip that step if you use buttermilk since it can curdle when heated.

A thin layer of chocolate glaze is my preferred topping for Depression cake, but you can trade it for easy chocolate buttercream frosting or chocolate ganache for something more indulgent. The cake is even moist enough to skip the topping altogether, adding just a dusting of powdered sugar before serving.

More Retro Cake Recipes

• Chocolate Mayonnaise Sheet Cake
  
• Gooey Butter Cake
• Lazy Daisy Cake
• Sad Cake