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I’ve got the craziest recipe for you guys today! But I suppose you already knew that from the title, didn’t you?
Vanilla Crazy Cake – also known as Wacky Cake or Depression Cake, doesn’t need dairy or eggs to make them.
Want more cake recipes? Check out:
- Bailey’s Mousse Cake
- Almond Bundt Cake
- The Best Icebox Cakes
- Rainbow Unicorn Cake
- Chocolate Crazy Cake
- Victoria Sponge Cake
In fact, you don’t even need to get a separate bowl dirty – you can make it right in the pan!
These cakes became popular during the Great Depression when eggs and dairy products were expensive and hard to come by. Nowadays, they’re great for people with food allergies, and everyone will love them!
All things aside, sometimes we just need a quick and delicious way to satisfy our sweet tooth and this is it!
The beauty is, you can change out ingredients or add to it as needed. Take the basis of this recipe and add sprinkles or a different flavored extract. Maybe you want to make it a fun color, you can add some food dye and truly make it fun and colorful.
Have fun making this cake and we cannot wait to see the look on your face when it’s made without those eggs and and dairy products!
What You’ll Need To Make Vanilla Crazy Cake:
- All-purpose flour
- Sugar
- Baking soda
- Salt
- White vinegar
- Vegetable oil
- Water
- Pure vanilla extract
How To Make Vanilla Crazy Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a greased 8″ square (or round…I prefer the round, but I’ve made this in both) baking pan.
Make 3 depressions in the dry ingredients – two small and one large. Pour the vinegar and vanilla in each of the two smaller depressions, and the vegetable oil in the large one.
Pour water over the entire thing and mix until smooth.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Let it cool, then top with your favorite frosting and enjoy!
If you’re more of a chocolate fan, check out our Chocolate Crazy Cake recipe!
Vanilla Crazy Cake
Crazy cake is made with no eggs, milk, or butter.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups All-purpose flour
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp White vinegar
- 5 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 1 Cup Water
- 1 1/2 tsp Pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a greased 8" square (or round...I prefer the round, but I've made this in both) baking pan.
Make 3 depressions in the dry ingredients - two small and one large. Pour the vinegar and vanilla in each of the two smaller depressions, and the vegetable oil in the large one.
Pour water over the entire thing and mix until smooth.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Let it cool, then top with your favorite frosting and enjoy!
Need a non diary vanilla frosting
I just have one question the picture shows a two layer cake but the recipe only refers to one pan so I am guessing you need to make the same recipe Teutonic make a two layer cake ? Please help also I don’t see any suggestions for a dairy free frosting which would also be very helpful
Can this recipe be used for cup cakes as well?
Yes! I’ve done it – works perfectly
Wacky Cake is as ‘fool proof’ a recipe as you’ll ever find. It’s very forgiving to all sorts of mistakes as well as modifications. I use root beer for the water sometimes.
You can undercook it or overcook it.
It’s not a souffle! I T vinegar or 1 T, it matters not. It’s perfect for kids to make on their own too.
Hi! I wanted to know why theres no baking powder? I would to ask possible i could use selfraising flour?. Thank you.
The cake is find for layering it’s more on a dense side but not as much as a pound cake. Mop
My grandmother used a variant of this during WW 1, and didn’t have sugar, so used dried fruits, like raisins for sweetness.
Hello there,
I’d love to bake this cake for a friend’s wedding. Do you reckon I can make it into two layers? Will it be sturdy enough? Thank you very much! It’s a scrumptious recipe, by the way! 😋😋
Do not waste your ingredients. Every cake needs eggs. Mine turned out 3/4 of on inch in height. Looked like a pancake.
Sorry for my dumb question what’s a depression ? Im so confuse in that part of the recipe . Help
It’s where she is making a hole in the dry ingredients to pour the wet into. She added a picture
Crazy cake, or “depression” cake is referencing the GREAT Depression in historical times when foods like dairy and eggs were scarce because of the expense and it was necessary to find ways to cook and bake without some of the more pricey ingredients.
😃
Hope that helps!
For other frugal inexpensive recipes, look for Great Depression recipes and advice on how to maintain a more frugal lifestyle
It was an era in the United States “The Great Depression”
just a well or hole in the dry ingredients for the wet ingredients to be contained in.
My husband has become allergic to eggs. Very allergic. He loves baked goods. So for his birthday I’m trying to find a no egg Italian cream cake recipe. Do you think I could add pecans and coconut to this recipe and get a cake that would resemble Italian cream?
Hi,
Can gluten-free flour be subbed for all purpose? If so, will it change the measurements?
Than you
I am not sure, I have never used it!
I have used 1 cup of dry uncooked rice and blended it with a 1/2 cup of cornstarch or arrowroot powder or a combination of tapioca starch and potato starch. This makes about 1-1/2 cups of flour and is used as cup by cup to regular flour. (I have a ninja blender wuth bullet attachment, I used the bullet to blend the rice. The finer the blend the better texture.)
If you use one that specifies it is a 1:1 substitute for regular flour, (like the krusteeze brand) it should work out ok. Keep in mind that might however change the amounts of other ingredients, like the leveling agents.
Hope that helps.
What about frosting?
I am wondering if this cake is stable enough to use for cute cake (or other remove from pan type ish kind of fabulous cakeyness)? Could it be used as two rounds and filled? Basically, I’m wanting to use it as regular freaking cake! I wanna bake it in rounds, fill and frost for a simple two later cake. I am not saying this as easy or to the point as I hoped but someone catch my drift…please!! What is the texture like as well as crumb? I obviously realize that the method and bake time would change if it can be treated cake kinda cake. I’ve said cake like 80 times. YIKES!
Lol yes! That’s how we do it!
e is find for layering it’s more on a dense side but not as much as a pound cake.
Has anyone added cinnamon to the recipe?
Did you mean 1 tbsp vinegar?
What is the vinegar used for?
Vinegar is an egg substitute
Baking soda reacts with vinegar causing a chemical reactions that produce that light airy structure in your cake.
Vinegar by itself is NOT an egg substitute.
Same can I use apple cider vinger
Any vinegar will work. It’s about the acidity not the type of vinegar.
Can I use apple cider vinegar?
I’ve been making this cake for years except I put cocoa in mine for chocolate cake . It’s a great cake. Double the recipe for a 9×13 .
How long do I cook the 9×13 for?
Baking soda needs an acid to activate baking powder has cream of tartar in it, cream of tartar is an acid it comes from the byproduct of making wine. Anywho you can use apple cider vinegar or even lemon juice (that’s what I use adds a good flavor too and sometimes I put way too much in and no one knows unlike vinegar im sure it would taste bad if you added too much.)
I’m preparing for my little girls first birthday, and considering her intolerence of eggs I’m about to try out this recipe. I’m just thinking of making cupcakes instead od a cake. Have you every made cupcakes with this recipe. I guess i will have to reduce the baking time, but I’m wondering if about 10 minutes will be ok?
I found this recipe and read through it (loved the history behind it too) and thought – this can’t be right ….. and at midnight I couldn’t resist whipping one up. It honestly took a few minutes to throw together and put in the oven and ONE pan to wash! The actual pan you bake it in 😧
Turned out perfectly and I was shocked to say the least. I’m about to do my daughters birthday cake using the chocolate version 😁
Thank you for posting this recipe 😁