May 3, 2020–Depression Era Cake is a type of cake that was commonly made during the Great Depression because the ingredients included little or no milk, sugar, butter or eggs since they were either expensive or hard to find. Although we are not in a Great Depression, COVID-19 has resulted in a lot of people cooking making normal ingredients almost non-existent. I still don’t understand the run on toilet paper but that’s for another discussion. The trick of the “depression cake” is that it substitutes cheaper ingredients for the more expensive, harder to find ones. Chef Michael Zebrowski of the CIA (food not spies) explains that vegetable oil replaces butter, vinegar and baking soda replace the eggs, etc. Although I had plenty of the usual baking ingredients I decided to give this a try. During C-19 there were numerous websites listing the required ingredients: AP flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, vegetable oil, and cooled brewed coffee.
First you preheat your oven to 375°F and grease an 8-inch round or square pan. Whenever I make something with chocolate I dust the pan with cocoa instead of flour.
Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Poke three holes into the mix. Mix the vanilla, vinegar, and oil then pour into each hole–don’t ask me why?!?!?!
Add the coffee and stir the ingredients until well blended.
Add to the pan. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the top is set but springy. Cool the cake in the pan.
I topped it with a chocolate ganache; you can also enjoy it plain.
Although it looked tasty I decided to take it up another level by adding a simple white chocolate ganache.
It turned into my version of a Hostess Cupcake.
