Chocolate Wacky Cake

This post may contain affiliate links. Using these links, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you!

This Chocolate Wacky Cake is a delicious old fashioned one-pan chocolate cake that contains no eggs, butter, or milk! It’s totally wacky and vegan too!

Chocolate Wacky Cake

PIN IT TO YOUR RECIPES BOARD ON PINTEREST!

FOLLOW SUGAR & SOUL ON PINTEREST FOR MORE GREAT RECIPES!

Have you ever had Chocolate Wacky Cake before? It’s a really old recipe, and if you’ve had it before it’s probably because the recipe was passed on to your mother or grandmother at a church or community gathering decades ago.

Wacky Cake is believed to have come about in times of rationing during WWII, but it also called Depression Cake, which would date its creation a little earlier in America’s history, but either way, it was created when milk, eggs, and butter were scarce and people had to learn to adapt in the kitchen.

This cake doesn’t have any milk, eggs, or butter in it, and if you decide to leave off my delicious Cool Whip Ganache, then it’s a vegan cake too! If you decide to omit the ganache topping, you can dust it with powdered sugar or drizzle in chocolate sauce.

One of the other reasons this cake gets is name is that of the way it’s prepped, right in the pan it’s baked in, but make sure to whisk it up good and get all the dry ingredients mixed in before baking. You can mix the ingredients together in a bowl if you wish and then add it to the pan.

What You’ll Need For This Recipe:

An 8-inch round cake pan – this cake conveniently makes just one layer which means it’s perfect what you want something small for a family dessert or as an addition to a dessert spread for the holidays.

I highly recommend using a Bake Even Strip, this will help to ensure a relatively level cake once bakes and not one with a huge dome top.

Cake tester to make sure that your cake is perfectly cooked before pulling out of the oven.

5 from 4 votes

Print

Chocolate Wacky Cake

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

35 mins

Total Time

45 mins

 

This Chocolate Wacky Cake is a delicious old fashioned one-pan chocolate cake that contains no eggs, butter, or milk! It's totally wacky and vegan too!

Course: Dessert

Servings: 10

Author: Rebecca

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa not Dutch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 batch Cool Whip Ganache

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Use a nonstick 8-inch cake pan, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Make four wells in the mix.

3. Add wet ingredients into the wells and then whisk to combine, making sure all dry ingredients are mixed in.

4. Bake for 32 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes clean from the center of the cake. 

5. Cool the cake on a cooling rack for 30 minutes before inverting and removing from the pan. Top with ganache or a dusting of powdered sugar and enjoy.