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PROBUS Club of Durham West- HOME
- Recipe September 2024
Sharing Our Recipes |
Depression Cake
Recipe, Courtesy of Patricia Bolger |
This is a cake of many names: Depression Cake, Blue Monday Cake, Wartime Cake, WW2 Ration Cake, Wacky Cake or Crazy Cake. Whatever I call it “The Big Guy” gets into character and struts his Blue Man face paint, his camouflage and army fatigues, practices his sad face or just plain goes full on madcap offbeat wacky! It’s just a roll of the dice. Drama all the time! The beauty of this cake is that it has no eggs, no butter and no milk and it still turns out moist and spongy. The recipe can be easily doubled to an 8x13 pan or a double recipe can make 24 cupcakes. If you are using a glass baking pan, reduce the baking time by 5-8 minutes. Do not over bake and make sure your baking powder and baking soda is relatively fresh. Whenever I serve this cake, I just know that “The Big Guy” will be looking for the bottle of Kahlua to add a good shot to his strong black coffee. |
INGREDIENTS 1 ½ cups flour 4 Tbsp cocoa, sifted 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt 1 cup white sugar 1 ½ tsp vanilla 1 Tbsp vinegar 5 Tbsp canola oil 1 cup warm water |
INSTRUCTIONS 1. Pre-heat the oven to 325F. 2. Combine all dry ingredients including sugar in one bowl. 3. Mix vanilla, vinegar, canola oil and warm water in a second bowl. 4. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat well with an electric mixer or a wooden spoon. 5. Pour into an 8x8 ungreased cake pan. 6. Bake at 325F for 45-50 minutes. Reduce the baking time slightly if you are using a glass pan. 7. Check cake doneness with your cake tester or a wooden toothpick. 8. Cool completely before frosting, alternately dust icing sugar on top or just do nothing and he will eat it anyway. Serve as cake or as a dessert with berries and ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy! |
CHOCOLATE ICING
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp cocoa
3 Tbsp hot water
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups icing sugar
Beat all together and slather on top of the cooled cake.