Vanilla Crazy Cake You Can Make With No Eggs, Milk, Or Butter
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!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Cups All-purpose flour
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp White vinegar
- 5 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 1 Cup Water
- 1 ½ 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!
ok i am trying this cake! but when i put it all together there was not a lot of batter??? seemed to little of a cake surely not at all like the picture. So I doubled the recipe now I dont know how long to cook it for. I checked on it at 30 min but the center is still not cook 🙁
This recipe makes way too little of a cake!
I don’t think my oven can go that high it says 350 degrees
Made this cake and it is tasty but didn’t rise and was really flat. Not sure where I went wrong 😕
I’m making this cake for the second time but not sure about the baking soda. The first time I used baking powder, reading too fast however it came out delicious. This time I’m noticing a metallic taste in the batter using the powder. It’s n the oven now, I hope all is not lost. We shall see, overall these cakes are deliciously moist and tasty. I won’t make cake any other way ;)!!!
Correction: the metallic taste is from using the bakkng soda.
What dairy free frosting do you recommend to use with Crazy Cake?
Every time i make this cake it turns out perfect! But i don’t veer off the recipe… if the recipe says oil i use oil if it says water i use water. If you follow the exact recipe it turns out PERFECT!!!
can I make the vanilla cake & add lemon juice to make it a lemon cake ? how much lemon juice ?
@mary, I’ll bet you would do better using the zest of one lemon and adding 1/2 tsp. of lemon extract
Can you double this recipe for two 8” round cakes?
Cake will have a better texture and be lighter if you reduce the flour to 1-1/4 cup and add 1/4 cup cornstarch. I prefer to mix my crazy cake in a single bowl and then pour it into the pan for baking. One more bowl to clean up but its much easier to mix in a bowl.
I followed the instructions to the letter. Cake was heavy and doughy. Smelled like corn bread. My husband liked it and ate two pieces right away, but he’s not hard to please. Tried it because my son in law can’t have eggs but I won’t be serving this to him.
It was so easy . It is a silly and delicious cake. Can I make it on a 6 inches round? HOW MUCH TIME I HAVE TBAKE IT?
I just made this what is supposed to be a CAKE. I did everything as the ingredients asked plus added 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum, but just substituted the all-purposed for handmade oat flour and also substituted the Vegetable oil for melted butter (even though it says NO MILK, EGGS OR BUTTER) The batter was very watery, and the “cake” turned out very thin and doughy.
@Alexis Johnson,
The recipe calls for wheat flour. Oat flour is not the same. Follow the recipe before you grouse please
Can I use baking powder instead of baking soda?
@Katie, Yes u can
Can I freeze this Cake? Would like to make it in advance of our birthday celebrations.
Can this be made into cupcakes?
@Tianna, Absolutely yes! Made the white and chocolate versions for grandson’s birthday cupcake “cake”
Can this cake be inverted onto a platter easily? Should I flour the pan also?
@Jaymie,
If you want to remove the cake from the pan, I’d recommend lining the bottom of the pan with parchment and mixing the cake ingredients in a separate bowl, then pour into the prepared pan.
Never made a dairy and egg free cake but I was out of milk and came across this. I mixed everything in a bowl and then poured into a greased pan. Looks fluffy and smells good! Maybe people are adding tablespoons of vinegar instead of teaspoons? I followed the directions exactly except mixing it in the pan, can’t wait to try a whole piece, I tried little and it was great!
Can crazy cake be made with gluten free flour as well as diary free.
Can this be made sugar free ?
@Beverly, One reviewer said they made it with Stevia. You could try that. Good luck!
Is this a cake I could mail from Georgia to Colorado without it going bad?
Just used 1c almond flour, 1/2c arrowroot starch, 3/4tsp xanthan gum, 1c lemon juice instead of water, and coconut sugar instead of sugar. I also added 8 drops lemon essential oil!!! Can’t wait for lemon amazingness!!!
@Mo, how did it turn out?
@Mo, Hi just wondering how your cake turned out asking it gluten free.
My boyfriend is a allegiance to eggs and I want to make this for him for his birthday
@Kerrianne, if then put condesed milk
I have made the chocolate version (WWII Cake) many times and it’s better than chocolate cake with eggs and milk and butter. That cake is made with warm water.
I think using warm water in this cake would get it rising faster and it would be less dense. Will try that next time.
I have made this recipe and a chocolate version for years and they are wonderful! I do use melted butter instead of oil. Anyone who says you can taste the vinegar has put in too much. It is only a teaspoon and the taste is gone once the reaction has occurred. Great vanilla cake recipe and nice small size; perfect!