Butterless Eggless Easy Depression Cake

Quick. Chocolatey. Squidgey. Smack you on the face delicious. Using only things that you have in your kitchen already.

If not, you seriously need to go shopping.

Hello, welcome to the easiest chocolate cake in the world. Which is awesome because yay cake anytime. Which is also bad because oh God cake anytime.

No matter what we put on a cake, the end product, that makes or breaks it, is the cake itself. It cannot be crumbly. It cannot be squishy (in that weird way). It cannot be dry. It cannot be soaked in oil. It cannot be too sweet. It cannot taste of flour. I must not break my back baking it. It must use as few vessels as possible. We have a lot of demands for this poor thing.

Which is when, the oven gods bestow upon us the Depression Cake. No butter. No eggs. Just flour, chocolate, water, sugar, oil and vinegar. You heard that right. There is a very interesting back story to this I suppose. During the Great Depression in the US, eggs, butter etc were heavily rationed. Which put a spanner in every homemaker's plan. But could the cake-eating stop? Nay, I say. Human ingenuity has no bounds. So, by the logic of the chemical reaction, and logical role played by each ingredient which makes a cake what it is, items were substituted, and the Depression cake was born.

So presenting. the beautiful, fudgy yet cakey, the Depression Cake.

Depression Cake
I have played around with the recipe provided by a friend on facebook. It's not mine :)

Serves 2 people, or 1 very happy person :)

You need:

• 1.5 cups of regular flour (I used the American standard measure). 
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, unsweetened
• about 1/3 cup odourless oil
• 1 cup of water (see note)
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• Any essence you want (chocolate goes well with vanilla, coffee, butterscotch, caramel, nutty flavours)
• Optional: chopped nuts

The How:

• Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the liquid ones in another.
• Add the liquid ingredients to the dry, and mix till combined. Do not overmix.
• Fold in the nuts if using.
• Pour into a greased pan, and bake at 180 celsius for about 30 minutes. Check post that, if anymore baking is needed.

That's literally it. Let it cool, demould and chop it squares. 

Notes:

• You can even frost it with a basic ganache and then serve, but to me, it's not necessary.
• The water mentioned, can also be the same quantity of hot strong coffee. I tried it, and the cake was absolutely delicious.
• You can sub about 1/3rd cup of almond flour for 1/3rd cup flour.

Eat away my friends, and be merry at such a ridiculously easy cake!

Till the next time!