The softest eggless chocolate cake you will ever make

It was my son’s birthday, and he refused to have a cake. But I had to bake a cake, as I loved baking 😀  . I was also in no mood for the clean-up after baking. So I started looking out for a cake that would tempt him as well as not add up to my already boring chores. And guess what, I came across this easiest eggless chocolate cake, which was also vegan as it was dairy-free.

History calls it the depression cake. It is also known as the crazy cake, wacky cake, and whatnot. But definitely crazy as you would not believe the texture, for which we take so much care in preparing our regular cakes. It seems to have originated in the great depression era, roughly from 1929 through the IInd world war.

Commodities like butter, milk, and eggs were scarce and were severely rationed, but still, people could not live without cakes 🙂  . So the ingenious cooks of that era went on to invent this cake, which did not need any of the rationed items. The added plus was that it did not need any mixers or beaters.

There are umpteen recipes for this cake on the internet, with slight modifications here and there. But the basic ingredients and method remain the same. Generally in a greased pan, all the dry ingredients are mixed up.

Three wells, 2 small and one big are made in the flour, and vinegar, vanilla essence, and oil are added to them. Then water is added all over and mixed together vigorously to form the batter. So you just need a baking pan and a hand beater.

But I would suggest that you do all this mixing up in a separate pan, and then transfer it to your prepared baking pan. Coz however vigorously you mix up, you will have white patches of flour at the base as I had. This cake is generally cooled in the pan and frosted after cooling, though you can take it out, as I did.

As I use vanilla sugar, I made only two wells and proceeded with the recipe. Also, I used warm water mixed with a bit of coffee powder, instead of plain water as coffee pairs well with chocolate. But you can use plain water or even milk if you are not vegan. Similarly, for oil, I used coconut oil, though you can replace it with butter or any oil of your choice.

Bottom line – My son simply loved the cake and finished it in two days 🙂  .

This is the first cake recipe I am posting on my website.

Over to the recipe…

Hema’s P.S

• The cake is made usually in a single pan, and the wet ingredients are added by forming the wells. But it works even if you mix up all the wet ingredients together and add them to the dry ingredients.
•  Once baked, the top is kind of sticky. So if you plan to take out the cake, bake it like for brownies.
• As you use vinegar in this recipe, I would suggest that you use glass baking pans. An 8″x8″ square pan would be perfect for this. But I only had a 10″x6″ glass pan, so I baked in it. 
• Allspice is an optional ingredient just to enhance the flavor. You can totally omit it, or replace it with any of your favorites like nutmeg or cinnamon.
• If you are using vanilla extract make another small well in the flour and pour into it. 
• Cool the cake completely before icing /frosting. My cake was warm when I frosted it, so I had to refrigerate it for some time before serving it.