Chocolate Wacky Cake

A Vintage Recipe / Kelli Huggins

This chocolate “wacky” cake comes from the files of my great-aunt Flora, who lived in Delhi. When I came across this recipe, I wasn’t quite sure what made it wacky.

There are no unusual ingredients, nothing but pantry staples. I did some sleuthing and it turns out that wacky cakes were popular around World War II when Americans were rationing their food to support the war effort.

Eggs and milk are noticeably missing from this recipe because they would have been in short supply. Flora’s recipe dates from this time, so it is fascinating to see how a simple recipe card can tell us about the reality of the lives of Catskill-ians in the past. 

The final product lacks a little of the richness of a cake with eggs and dairy, but is still tasty and chocolatey. Eating it reminds me how much of a treat this would have been in the grips of World War II. I thought it would be nice to revisit this successful, limited-ingredient (and vegan if you want) recipe now when we’re all trying to follow proper social distancing and limiting our trips to the store.

Chocolate Wacky Cake

1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
3 rounded Tbsp cocoa powder
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
5 Tbsp melted shortening, butter, or canola oil
1 cup cold water

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Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, and cocoa powder into an ungreased, roughly 9x9 pan. Stir to ensure the ingredients are fully combined. Make three wells in the dry ingredient mixture. Add the vinegar, vanilla, and fat each into their own well. It’s ok if they spill over. On top of that, pour the water. Mix well and bake in the dish as is for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

-KH