My Hungry Husband

The Great Depression Cake

The great depression cake is also known as crazy cake, but I prefer the name “the Great Depression cake”, because it has no milk, butter or eggs as these ingredients were scarce and expensive at the time. It’s a quick and easy recipe, very straightforward. Everything gets mixed in the pan that it bakes in and you literally need to equipment. A fork or whisk will do. Saying that, it really does need some icing or topping. I made a simple chocolate ganache and added some unicorn sprinkles for a touch of whimsy. Enjoy and don’t forget to tag me in your creations. FYI I used this recipe from: Coffeewithus3.com  which I found on Pinterest.

Depression Cake Ingredients:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1.5 cups flour
  • 3Tbs cocoa
  • 0.5 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1tsp vinegar
  • 1tsp vanilla
  • 5Tb vegetable oil
  • 1 cup room temperature coffee
  • Chocolate icing of choice*

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Grease a 20x20cm pan.
  2. Measure the dry ingredients into the pan and stir together.
  3. Make one large depression and 2 smaller ones into the dry ingredients.
  4. In the large one, add the oil. Add the vinegar and vanilla into the 2 smaller ones.
  5. Pour your coffee over everything and mix/whisk until no lumps remain. ***When I made this my coffee was still hot, which caused a few doughy bits in my cake, so I advise to wait for it to cool down***.
  6. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes. (Mine took 20 mins).
  7. Allow to cool and spread icing on top. Ganache: 80g chocolate & 80g cream, in the micro on low for 1 minute. Mixed together.

 

 

Great Depression Cake

As you can see the Great Depression Cake ends up not being depressing at all. In fact, this humble creation can brighten up any mood with just a little bit of added color.

If your are a fan of baking cakes, I also recommend trying this warming Apple Cake.

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