Feeling Depressed? Bake a Chocolate Depression Cake

Baking is making a huge comeback, because what else is there to do? With limited ingredients available, give depression-era recipes a try

Everyone has their ways of dealing with the stress of being in lockdown. My way is to bake my way through it. I’ve made everything from bread, to biscuits, to bagels. I’ve even pulled out the old pasta maker that hadn’t seen the light of day in over a decade and started rolling out homemade fettuccine.

There was a moment of panic when my local store was out of every kind of flour. Walmart delivery to the rescue! I was able to secure enough flour to go on happily baking my troubles away for at least the next several weeks.

That is until there were no eggs. It’s hit or miss what ingredients may be missing at your local grocery store. But don’t despair, we can learn a few things from taking a look back at history. The Great Depression inspired creative recipes with limited ingredients. This is why depression-era cooking is experiencing a resurgence.

In my current baking frenzy, I knew it was time to jump on the trend and try my hand at an authentic chocolate depression cake.

What is a depression cake?

It’s a cake developed during the Great Depression that can be made with limited ingredients. People get innovative when the situation requires it (especially when they want dessert) and the Great Depression was no exception.

During this time, ingredients like eggs, butter, and milk were very expensive and certainly couldn’t be wasted on a thing as frivolous as a cake.

Recipes during the Great Depression

Depression-era recipes made the most out of meager ingredients.

At the worst part of the Great Depression, 15 million Americans were unemployed. And there was no unemployment insurance for Americans when the depression first began, unlike other countries in Europe. Many had relied on credit to buy their homes, and many homes fell into foreclosure.

Times were tough and resources were scarce. But through these struggles and hardships, innovation occurred. And creative recipes, using the barest of ingredients, were developed. People used whatever they had. There were a lot of soups, stews, and meals made of hot dogs and chipped beef.

Perhaps its time to learn some lessons from those tough and innovative people from the past. The people who despite their troubles, still managed to give their families cake for dessert.

Time to bake

I decided to call it quits for the day and put an end to my work and to my 3rd grader’s e-learning. Instead, we baked a cake. And it was even an educational baking session as we talked some about the Great Depression. Although I didn’t mention that we’re barreling headfirst into another one. No need for that talk today.

Besides, she likely wouldn’t be too concerned as long as we can still afford an internet connection and an occasional Happy Meal. And of course, chocolate cake.

The missing ingredients

• Butter adds the flavor, moisture, and texture to your cake. The fat content of the butter coats the flour molecules making your cake soft.
• Eggs are important in baking as they give your baked goods structure and help them to rise.
• Milk provides a rich flavor and contains protein which also helps with structure during the baking process.

The substitutions: It’s vegan!

These substitutions are not only cheaper, but they have the added benefit of making your cake vegan.

• Use cooking oil instead of butter. You’ll sacrifice some of the richness that butter brings, but oil is much cheaper and it will achieve the same effect.
• Vinegar and baking soda replace the eggs to fluff up the cake and help it have a tender texture. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Vinegar sounds bad in a cake. But you won’t taste it at all. It’s only role is to help the texture.
• You can substitute water for milk in your cake. Your cake will be fine, but it will change the texture a little and you may lose some of the richness milk brings.

The recipe

I pulled out my old Joy of Cooking cookbook to see if I could find a recipe for a chocolate depression cake. Although it was dubbed “Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake (Vegan)”, it had exactly what we’re looking for. A cake with no butter, eggs, or milk.

I modified it a bit because I can’t help myself, it’s what I do. Here is my version of chocolate depression-era cake.

Combine the following dry ingredients in a large bowl: 1–1/2 cups flour* 1 cup sugar** 1/4 cup cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix the following in a small bowl: 1 cup water 1/4 cup cooking oil 1 tablespoon vinegar 1 tablespoon vanilla***

Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and stir until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8 x 8-inch square pan. (A 9-inch round pan works as well.)

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in a 350-degree oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 minutes and turn it out of the pan. Let it cool completely before frosting.

Or save yourself an extra dish and don’t remove it. Let it cool completely, frost it, and serve it, without removing it from the pan you baked it in.

*You can use whatever flour you have on hand. I used all-purpose. But note that if you use all whole wheat flour, it will make a dense cake. If you want to use whole wheat, try subbing a third or a half of the regular flour for whole wheat to keep it lighter.

**This may seem like a lot of sugar to you. This is indeed a lot of sugar. Perhaps you are wondering if you can cut it down a bit. I wouldn’t recommend it. This cake has no butter, eggs, or milk, I’m no Julia Child, but I think it needs all the sugar it can get.

***I’ve used a lot of vanilla here. It’s good but not necessary. If you’re running low you can cut it down to 1 teaspoon. It will still taste great.

The frosting

Now you could dust some powdered sugar on this thing and call it done. It’s sweet enough that it doesn’t need frosting. You could also make up a traditional buttercream frosting for it.

But I wanted to be authentic and stick to the depression rules, so I made a non-dairy chocolate icing. Usually, the fat in a buttercream frosting cuts the sweetness of it. Without any fat, be warned, this frosting is super sweet.

Chocolate Icing (Dairy-Free) 1–1/2 cups powdered sugar 1/4 cup cocoa powder 3 Tablespoons water 1 teaspoon vanilla

Let your cake cool completely. Mix the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla. Add the water slowly, one tablespoon at a time. Whisk after each addition. Stop adding water when it reaches the consistency you want. Mine took about 3 tablespoons. If it gets too runny, add some extra powdered sugar to thicken it up.

Pour the icing over your cake until it completely covers it.

Here it is

Taking appealing looking photos of food is much harder than I expected.

Clearly, it is not my destiny to become a recipe blogger. I have no patience or skill in taking photos. I took dozens of pictures and this is the best I could get. And now I see there’s a shadow across it. There’s nothing that can be done about it. I can’t waste another minute on pictures. It will have to do.

The verdict

It was good! It turned out light and fluffy with a strong chocolate flavor. Was this the best cake I’ve ever had? No, it was not. Water, oil, and vinegar can’t replicate the texture and richness that dairy brings to baked goods. But it was a tasty and chocolaty, fun lesson in history. Also easy and cheap to make. I’d much rather have depression cake than no cake.

And my family enjoyed it. My daughter announced it’s the best cake she’s ever had. Which makes me wonder why I’ve put so much effort into baking for her in the past. Why not just throw something together with a little oil, vinegar, and water?

Make do with what you have

Today I learned a lesson in making do with what you have. I’m the sort of cook that would search five different stores for just the right ingredients for my recipe. Whether a recipe called for tahini sauce or nopales or something different, you’d better believe I was going to get it.

But today, I made a cake without eggs, milk, or butter. Today, I discovered the things I used to stress over aren’t what matters at all.

What matters is that my family is home and safe and we had a fun afternoon baking a cake. We had a lesson in the ingenuity and strength of those from our past and we did it together.

Overall, depression cake was a success. I may try more depression-era recipes in the weeks to come. Wait for my next installment on recipes such as creamed chipped beef on toast and ketchup sandwiches.

Yes, those are actual depression-era recipes. Let’s hope this pandemic never reaches the ketchup sandwich stage.