This Crazy Vanilla Cake, also known as Depression Cake or Wacky Cake came about during the Great Depression. Made without eggs, butter and milk and all in the pan that it is cooked it, this is a delicious and very easy cake that everyone will enjoy.
Crazy Vanilla Cake
When faced with scarcity of certain foods, households had to use what they had as a substitute for certain ingredients without sacrificing the flavour. As mentioned before, this cake is made without eggs, butter and milk, using white vinegar, oil, water and vanilla extract as the wet ingredients.
After placing all the dry ingredients in an ungreased baking tray, three wells are made and one wet ingredient is dropped into each well. Once mixed through, the cake is baked. It can be iced with your favourite icing. For this recipe, I used apple cider vinegar and a light olive oil, though you could use white vinegar instead of the apple cider and canola or vegetable oil instead of the olive oil.
To make this a crazy lemon cake, add 1 TBSP Lemon Zest into the dry ingredients and add 1 tsp of lemon extract into the well with the vanilla extract.
This recipe can also be made into cupcakes, just mix the ingredients in a bowl and spoon into a lined muffin tray.
When unfrosted, this cake can be stored in the fridge, wrapped in plastic wrap. If you have adding icing, then allow the icing to harden before loosing covering the cake in plastic and storing in the fridge. I have also stored mine in an airtight container in the fridge as well.
This cake can also be frozen as well. If unfrosted, wrap and place in the freezer. If frosted, freeze on a tray in the freezer before wrapping so the icing doesn’t transfer to the plastic wrap.
Crazy Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups plain flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 5 TBSP oil, vegetable, canola, sunflower, light olive oil
- 1 TBSP vinegar, white or apple cider
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup water, cold
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180˚C .
- In an ungreased round, or 9x9 inch square or a 9x13inch lamington tray, add the plain flour, sugar, salt, and bicarbonate of soda.
- Using a whisk or a fork, stir the ingredients together until they are somewhat blended.
- Using a fork or spoon, make two small and one slightly larger depressions in the cake mix.
- In the large depression, add the oil.
- In one of the small depressions, add the vinegar.
- In the other small depression, add the vanilla extract.
- Gently pour the cold water over all of the ingredients.
- Using the fork or whisk, gently stir the ingredients until they are fully combined. Make sure to mix in the mixture in the corners if using a square or rectangular pan.
- Gently tap the pan on the countertop to smooth out the top and release any bubbles that may be in your mixture.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
- Remove from oven to cool completely before icing and serving.
- Ice with your favourite icing, or sprinkle with icing sugar / powdered sugar.
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