Crazy Chocolate Cake

The Crazy Chocolate Cake is an easy vegan chocolate cake recipe made without eggs, milk, or butter. Plus, it’s an easy chocolate cake recipe made in one bowl with a delicious, moist chocolate crumb and a sweet chocolate frosting.

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I love making all sorts of cake, whether they are accidentally vegan like my Oat Flour Cake, Sugar-Free Cake, 2-Ingredient No-Bake Chocolate Cake, or Protein Cake or if they are vegan versions of the classics, like my Vegan Bundt Cake, Vegan Christmas Cake, or Vegan Coffee Cake.

This crazy chocolate cake is from the first category, a delicious, accidentally vegan cake. You’ll see below that I’ve perfected the method to make it absolutely no-fail every time.

Crazy Cakes, also known as wacky cakes, are easy cake recipes made with pantry ingredients – nothing fresh from the fridge. Also known as depression cake recipes, this was first created during World War II when eggs and milk were scarce.

Nowadays, crazy cakes are popular on the vegan diet, and busy days to fix a quick cake craving with very simple ingredients and minimal dishwashing! A crazy cake recipe is naturally:

• Dairy-free
• Egg-free
• Vegan

Ingredients and Substitutions

Below, I listed the basic ingredients and substitutions available to make this crazy cake recipe with gluten-free, sugar-free, or oil-free foodies.

• Flour – The classic crazy cake recipe uses white flour. I recommend unbleached white wheat flour or spelt flour simply because they are more nourishing. Also, the recipe works very well with all-purpose gluten-free flour. Other healthier flour options are spelt flour or oat flour. However, if you are using oat flour, then the texture will be less moist, and you will have to use sugar to keep the texture right. Xylitol or erythritol won’t work with oat flour.
• Sugar – White sugar will work very well, but I recommend unrefined cane sugar or a sugar-free crystal sweetener like erythritol or xylitol to make the cake sugar-free.
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – Sweetened cocoa powder will work, but the cake will be overly sweet, so it’s not recommended.
• Baking Soda – or double the amount if you want to use baking powder
• Oil – Canola oil or light olive oil works the best. I love olive oil to decrease the saturated fat in the cake recipe. Other options are melted coconut oil or avocado oil. For an oil-free option, replace oil with the same amount of unsweetened apple sauce.
• Vinegar – Apple cider vinegar is my healthy choice, but any vinegar or lemon juice would work too.

How To Make A Crazy Chocolate Cake

There’s always a day when you crave a deliciously moist chocolate cake, but you don’t feel like spending hours washing the dishes or baking. So this chocolate crazy cake is very handy for those days.

1. The key to making a delicious, crazy cake is to first whisk all the dry ingredients into the baking dish.

2. Then, make two great depressions, meaning holes, in the dry ingredients for the wet ingredients.

3. Add the oil in one of the depressions and the vinegar in the other one. Pour the water over the other cake ingredients.

4. Stir the crazy chocolate cake ingredients to combine and form a smooth chocolate batter.

5. Bake the crazy cake on the center rack of your oven for 30 to 35 minutes at 350°F (180°C) until a pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool down on a cooling rack before frosting.

6. Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate frosting for your cake. In a mixing bowl, melt dark chocolate chips and coconut cream. You can also bring the mixture into a saucepan and melt it over medium heat until glossy and thick, like a chocolate ganache. Spread the chocolate frosting over the cake and refrigerate the cake to set your frosting.

Expert Tips for a Perfect Cake

It’s a no-bowl recipe since you can simply mix all the ingredients directly into the baking dish!

There are two baking dish options for this recipe, depending on what you want, serving the cake in the pan or unmolding it and serving it on a serving plate.

• Ceramic/glass baking pan – this is the best option if you want to serve the cake directly from the pan.
• Regular cake pan – in this case, I like to lay a piece of parchment paper at the bottom of the pan. To prevent the piece of paper from moving, I grease it with oil on both sides. This way, it perfectly adheres to the pan, and the batter doesn’t leak under the paper when you beat the batter into the pan. This pan is great if you want to unmold the cake and serve it on a cake stand or plate.

Serving

This crazy cake is delicious on it’s own, but it can be super-charged with some of the toppings below:

• Frosting: like my Protein Powder Frosting, Cashew Frosting, or Vegan Chocolate Frosting.
• Whipped Cream: like my Vegan Whipped Cream or Vegan Coconut Cream Frosting.
• Fresh Fruits: strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries.
• Nut Butter: Drizzle your favorite peanut butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Chocolate Baking Recipes

If you love egg-free chocolate cakes, brownies, and bars, I have a few more easy chocolate recipes for you to try.

Peanut Butter Banana Brownies (Vegan)

Eggless Chocolate Cake

Vegan Birthday Cake

Chocolate Chickpea Brownies

Vegan Bundt Cake

Crazy Chocolate Cake

An easy Vegan Crazy Chocolate Cake recipe ready in 10 minutes in 1-bowl and 100% egg-free, dairy-free and vegan-friendly.

4.76 from 33 votes

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Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 30 minutes mins

Total Time: 40 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12 slices

Calories: 225 kcal

Author: Carine Claudepierre

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Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

• ▢ 1 ½ cup All-Purpose Flour - see note for healthier/gluten-free options
• ▢ ¾ cup Sugar - see note for sugar-free/unrefined options
• ▢ ⅓ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar - or white vinegar or lemon juice
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Salt
• ▢ ⅓ cup Canola Oil - or light olive oil
• ▢ 1 cup Water - at room temperature

Dairy-free chocolate ganache

• ▢ 3.5 oz Dairy-Free Dark Chocolate Chips - or dark chocolate pieces (70-85% cocoa)
• ▢ ⅓ cup Canned Coconut Milk - or coconut cream

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Lightly grease a 9-inch x 9-inch square cake pan with oil. Glass or ceramic pans work the best.
• Directly in the cake pan (no bowl is needed for this recipe), add the flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Whisk to combine.
• Make 2 wells in the dry ingredients and add the vinegar in one of the wells and the oil in the other well.
• Pour the water, at room temperature, over the ingredients and whisk to form a batter with no lump. Careful, don't use boiling water, or the cake will be very chewy. Very cold water may create lumps, especially with gluten-free all-purpose flour.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Cool the cake down to room temperature before frosting. If you used a glass/ceramic pan, cool the cake in the pan, no need to unmold it. Otherwise, unmold after 10 minutes and cool down on a rack.
• Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate ganache

Chocolate Ganache

• Combine the melted chocolate with coconut cream
• Heat the coconut milk or cream in a small pan (you can also use your microwave), then pour over the dark chocolate chips and stir until the chocolate in the ganache is smooth and shiny.
• Spread all over the cake before serving

Notes

Flour options: you can replace white flour with the same amount of spelt flour or all-purpose gluten-free flour, or oat flour. Oat flour makes the cake very dense and doesn’t work in combination with sugar-free sweetener. The texture will be fragile if so. 

Sugar options: coconut sugar, unrefined cane sugar, or sugar-free option: replace sugar with erythritol or xylitol. Nutrition will be Calories: 176 kcal, Carbs: 17.8g, Sugar: 3.1g, Protein: 2.7 g Fiber: 1.8 g, Net carbs: 16g

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Nutrition

Serving: 1square with glazing | Calories: 225kcal | Carbohydrates: 30.2g | Protein: 2.6g | Fat: 11g | Fiber: 1.8g | Sugar: 15.6g