Crazy Cake Recipe (No Eggs, No Butter, No Bowl)

We decided to try our hand at making a Crazy Cake Recipe. When Crazy Cakes, Wacky Cakes, whatever we’re calling them started popping up all over, I was curious.

A cake without an egg seems crazy. It’s a chocolate cake recipe without milk.

Even my wartime rations cookbook states that there are only two types of cake. One requires shortening and the other, a sponge cake, requires whipping air into the eggs.

This is a great recipe that makes a quick cake batter with an end result of a moist chocolate cake.

Where did the Crazy Cake Crazy come From?

I read these cakes that require no eggs, no butter, and no bowl appeared as early as World War II. I discovered on the website Food Timeline that this might be true when rationing forced bakers to deal with shortages of key ingredients like butter and eggs. I asked my grandma who was born during the great depression. She wasn’t so sure.

Most websites point to the 1970s as the birth decade for the crazy cake. Let’s face it, the decade of the 70s made everything seem cool…even your mom going to work, remember, she “brings home the bacon and fries it up in a pan“?

Miss M and I tried out the Crazy Cake trend. The best part, the preparation was simple. We put all the ingredients in our bowl (we weren’t brave enough to mix it in the greased pan) and then made three indentations with a tablespoon (one larger than the other two). We filled one small one with vanilla, the other small one with vinegar and then put oil in the third, larger indentation.

For our grand finale, we dumped a cup of water over it all and stirred the batter smooth.

We love it!

We had great results!

It has a rich chocolate flavor. It’s moist. It has real flavor, and it pairs well with our 99 cent tub of chocolate frosting we heated in the microwave for 30 seconds and poured over the top of the cake.

I made the mistake of claiming it our “experiment” and Miss M rolled her eyes and said, “Really, Mom? We just made a cake.”

That we did with just a few basic ingredients–easy as, if not easier than a boxed cake mix.

How to Make a Cake with no eggs, no butter, no bowls

Crazy Cake Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 5 tbsp oil
• 1 cup water

Crazy Cake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease an 8×8 cake pan (you can double the recipe and use a 13×9 pan)
3. Mix first five (dry) ingredients.
4. Make three depressions in dry ingredients–two small and one larger.
5. Pour vinegar into one small depression
6. Pour vanilla into the other small depression.
7. Pour the vegetable oil into the third (larger) depression.
8. Pour water over all and mix well until smooth.
9. Bake on middle rack for 35 minutes. Time may vary depending on your oven, so check with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean.
10. Allow cake to cool.

Top with your favorite frosting. We just put a tub of store brand chocolate frosting in the microwave for 30 seconds, stirred it up and poured it over the top of the cooled cake. This Chocolate Frosting recipe is also one of our favorites.

You can even dust the cake with powdered sugar