When you’re stuck at home with limited ingredients on hand, this Vanilla Depression Cake is the easiest way to satisfy a sweet tooth. The best part is, there is no eggs, milk or butter required!

Vanilla Depression Cake Recipe

Depression Cake gets its name from the Great Depression. It was a popular cake due to its ability to be made easily without the need for milk, sugar, butter or eggs, because the ingredients were then either expensive or hard to obtain.

It is also commonly referred to as, “crazy cake” or “wacky cake” because it uses non-traditional cake ingredients.

Trust me, you won’t get depressed eating this cake and you’ll be surprised at just how delicious it is without all of those traditional cake ingredients!

This dense, moist cake recipe requires a few simple ingredients you likely already have in your pantry, a fork and a cake pan. That’s it!

Ingredients Needed:

• Flour
• Sugar
• Baking soda
• Kosher salt
• White distilled vinegar
• Canola oil
• Water
• Pure vanilla extract

How to Make Vanilla Depression Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13×9 glass baking dish.

In the baking pan, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt until combined.

Now, make 3 impressions (holes) into the dry ingredients. You can make these impressions using your fingers or the backend of a spoon.

Pour the vanilla into one impression, the oil into another, and vinegar into the last impression. Don’t worry if they overflow into each other.

Now, pour the water over all ingredients and mix until combined using a spoon or fork.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Once done, allow to cool completely before frosting. Check out our cream cheese frosting recipe below too!

Serve and Enjoy! You can also store any leftovers in the fridge for about a week.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 – 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 Cups Powdered sugar

Cream Cheese Frosting directions

Using a mixing bowl, combine the softened cream cheese and mix until smooth

Add in the vanilla and powdered sugar and mix until combined

Spread onto the cooled cake.