A quick and easy cake when you need a cake as soon as possible. This cake can be made with just pantry staples. No eggs, milk or butter are required. It’s a simple one-bowl recipe and the batter can be mixed by hand. The cake comes out fluffy and soft.
I recently tried an Emergency Cake recipe from the 1930s. While it was fairly simple to make, the long list of ingredients made me feel like it wasn’t really a cake recipe that I could rely on in an emergency. It required all the ingredients you would normally need to make a cake (eggs, butter, milk, flour, etc). When I think of emergency cake, I think of a cake with less ingredients. Something you can make without having to go to the grocery store. So today I’m sharing my emergency cake recipe. This is my go-to cake recipe when I need to whip up a homemade cake quickly. I love that it can be made with ingredients I already have in my actual pantry (no refrigerator items!).
Ingredients
- Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Sugar
- Vanilla
- Vegetable Oil (or butter)
- Water
Flour: This cake is made with all purpose flour. Do not use cake flour or bread flour. It can also be made with self-rising flour which I share in detail in the notes section of the recipe card.
Baking Powder: Make sure to use baking powder and not baking soda
Sugar: This cake is sweetened with regular granular white sugar.
Vanilla: I used pure vanilla extract.
Vegetable Oil: While you don’t need to use vegetable oil, you do want to use a neutral flavor oil or you will taste it. I find vegetable oil works best. If you have butter available, the cake also works with melted butter. I prefer to make the cake with butter, but the vegetable oil version works well too if you are out of butter.
Water: Water helps make this cake very light and fluffy.
How to Make Emergency Cake
You can either mix the batter with an electric mixer or by hand with a whisk. First, combine all the dry ingredients. Give the dry ingredients a quick sift so that the mixture becomes light and powdery. Then add in the vanilla, oil and half of the water. Mix the batter until no flour lumps remain. It’s important to remove all of the flour lumps before adding in the remaining water. Then add in the remaining water and mix until the water is fully incorporated.
Emergency Cake versus Depression Cake
This cake is similar to depression cake or crazy cake in that it doesn’t need eggs, butter or milk. However, it is made with baking powder whereas depression cake is usually made with baking soda and vinegar. And it does make a difference. Crazy cake has a much looser crumb. This cake has a tighter crumb, more like traditional cake.
More Easy Cake Recipes
Emergency Cake
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups (228 g) all purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsp (12 g) baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (3 g) salt
- 1 cup (198 g) granulated white sugar
- 1/2 tbsp (7 ml) vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (59 ml) vegetable oil or melted butter
- 1 cup (237 ml) water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Whisk until evenly combined. Then do a quick sift of your mixture by running your whisk rapidly back and forth through the flour until it looks light and powdery. This is an important step because it makes it much easier to mix your batter and not overwork it.
- Add in vanilla, oil and half of the water. Do not add the entire amount of water, otherwise you won't be able to mix out the flour lumps. Whisk until your batter is smooth and no flour lumps remain. Your batter will be very thick. Once batter is smooth, add in remaining water and whisk again until batter is smooth.
- Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for about 38 minutes or until cake is very lightly browned on top and toothpick inserted comes out clean. (I found it's better to bake this cake a little longer than just the toothpick coming out clean in order have a better flavor. The cake is done for me at 35 minutes using the toothpick test but I bake a little longer until the top is just starting to brown. Let the cake cool completely in pan before removing and cutting. If adding frosting, add it after the cake has cooled.
Notes
- If you have self-rising flour, this cake can also be made with self-rising flour. Simply use 1 3/4 cups (230 g) of self-rising flour and do not add baking powder and salt into the cake (since it's already in the self-rising flour).
- This cake can also be baked in an 8 inch round cake pan.
- If you have butter, you can use melted butter instead of oil. I think butter gives the cake a slightly better texture and flavor but the oil version is still pretty good.
- Optional Buttercream Frosting: I added buttercream frosting on top. For the frosting, you will need 1/4 cup unsalted butter (softened to room temperature), 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1.5 tbsp of milk. Cream butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add in the sugar and continue beating until sugar is fully incorporated. Add in the vanilla and milk and beat again on high speed for about 3 minutes or until frosting increases in volume and becomes very light and silky. You can add more milk if needed to reach desired consistency.
- Estimated nutrition does not include frosting.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
This recipe is absolutely delicious I was skeptical how it would be with no dairy but it did not let me down. So easy to make and it is exactly an emergency cake with few ingredients but doesn’t miss out on the flavour. I added salted caramel butter frosting and it went down a treat.
Love that you used salted caramel frosting! Sounds amazing!
I want to try to make this cake because my granddaughter cannot have eggs she’s allergic, but also have a niece that can’t have gluten. Can I use gluten-free flour for this recipe?
If you use a cup4cup GF flour, it should work. We can’t say for sure because we haven’t tried it.
Oh my god, I have always been terrible at baking and things I make usually end up in the bin. Until now! I made this after I googled “cake, no eggs”, because I didn’t have any eggs and it was like midnight. I did pop pineapple in the bottom, risky! But it turned out absolutely perfect. I am so shocked. I cannot believe I made a cake, and it was as nice as ones you get in the shop!
I feel so empowered. Which I know might sound silly, but I fail so much at life and if I can do this, then maybe I can do more things that I don’t think I’m capable of. Thank you so so so much <3
P.S. Me and my boyfriend ate the whole thing instead of having dinner. We're excited to try new recipes 😀
Your comment made our day! We’re so glad you loved the recipe 🙂 We have a lot of great recipes with four ingredients or less, we hope you check them out.
This cake…when instructions are followed properly is delicious. Thank you for this simple recipe. Of course you can adjust things in any recipe to see if you like it. You are so kind to reply to all “comments” very nice of you. Thanks again.
We’re glad you enjoyed it! Thank so much for your nice comment and review 🙂
I made this with the ingredients you suggested and the method you outlined. It was delicious, thank you.
(Reading through these some of these comments and I have to say, you have the patience of a Saint.)
Aw, thank you! We’re so glad you loved the cake!
Can I put sprinkles in this to make funfetti cake?
Yes, that will work! Or you can try our 4 ingredient birthday cake recipe that has sprinkles.
Hello,
I was so excited to give this cake a go and it turned out dense in the middle.
I didn’t think I could possible ‘overmix’ the batter. Is is possible?
Where did I go wrong?
(I did use 20g less sugar though)
We recommend making the recipe as it’s written – if you reduced the amount of sugar, the results will be different. In addition, it is possible to overmix the batter. So if you mixed it too long that could also cause the cake to be dense.
I made mine with 1/4 melted butter. It was very thick and hard to get through my whisk, but adding the second half of water worked it out. The result was like a moist shortcake and I happen to like to eat the part that sticks to the glass bottom (I used Pam). I spooned canned peaches in juice over my piece and it was good. I can imagine strawberries would be good too. Thanks for the recipe!
We’re glad you liked it!
It lives up to it’s name. I just had to see what a cake would be like without eggs, and I opted for vegetable oil. It smelled amazing as it was baking, but it turned out to be not as moist. I kept running into clumps of unresolved baking powder. Maybe I should have used a sifter instead of the whisk. For those reasons, I gave 4 stars. I love that this is recipe is practical and easy to follow. I probably will pick a different recipe for my next carmel cake, but this was super fun to try. Thanks for the recipe. ?
Yes, if your baking powder has lumps it’s a good idea to sift it first and then whisk it with the dry ingredients in the bowl. You can also make the cake with butter (we like it better as mentioned in the recipe notes) so maybe try that if you make it again.
I have German chocolate cake box cake mix I I have sugar and eggs and vegetable oil and baking soda baking powder vanilla can I mix that all together and freeze it
Boxed cake mix already has the dry ingredients mixed in so we don’t recommend using it for this recipe since this one is made from scratch.
Is the parchment paper process necessary?
Can I just spray Pam in a metal or glass pan?
We find that parchment paper works a lot better. The cake has a stickier bottom than traditional cake so while you can using cooking spray, but the cake could still stick to the pan – we don’t like to risk that which is why we use parchment.
What happens if you substitute the water and use whole milk?
It will work but the cake will be richer and a little more dense due to the fat in the milk.
I made that and it’s really fantastic ???
Thanks for recipe ?
You’re welcome!
This probably has to be the worst cake I’ve ever had and made. I’m not an amateur by any means but just wow. I think what makes this cake taste poorly is the amount of baking soda. I thought it was strange but figured I should give it a try anyway… now I know for certain to trust my instincts. The batter raw has a pleasant taste but once the baking soda begins to activate it results in an extremely bitter taste. I don’t leave reviews but oh boy did I feel like I needed too lol DO NOT MAKE
The recipe calls for baking powder, not baking soda so that might have been the issue. We hope you give it another try with the right ingredients!
Looks like a great recipe. Could I make it gluten free since I have celiac disease? Since it is a heavy cake could I also convert it to a rum cake like the small ones they sell for 20.00 on cruise ships.
Thank you
Pauline
Sorry, we haven’t tried it with GF flour.
I was going have company over and wanted to make a quick dessert. I made the emergency cake and everyone raved about it.. What made it nice was that you already have the staples in your pantry. It was mixed and baked in no time at all. I used the melted butter in this recipe. The butter cream frosting was delicious on it. The cake was dense, almost like a pound cake. The flavor was exceptional. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I like quick, easy recipes. You can’t beat it.
Thanks so much for your nice review! We’re so glad the cake was a hit.
The texture of this cake is amazing! The flavor comes off more like a shortcake though. The flour comes through more than I would expect in a traditional dessert cake. I enjoyed it with fruit spread and butter!
I’m glad you liked it!
I love these recipes.
Thanks so much!
Awesome! I find vegetable oil cakes really moist and yummy ?
You consider that a long list of ingredients? ? That’s everything a person already has in their pantry.
I think your misread my post. I stated that the other recipes I was coming across for emergency cake had a really long list of ingredients. I don’t think my recipe has a very long list of ingredients. It has what I consider are pantry staples which is why this is my version of emergency cake.
Sounds wonderfully easy! Can the batter be made into cupcakes?
yes
I haven’t made it yet but is this good enough to make for a wedding cake?
you can turn it into wedding cake
Easy cheap to make delicious
glad you liked it!
What would the cooking time be in a bundt pan?
Sorry, but we’re not sure. We’ve only tested it in an 8×8 pan.
Do u have a WHITE gluten free cake recipe??? Recipes I have tried they taste like corread thank you Linda kraner
We don’t have a GF white cake, but we have a lot of other Gluten-Free Recipes you might like to try.
I have one if is almost exactly like ur cake. I grew up with mine as called a crazy cake. I also use to make a red velvet cake by a recipe I was given then when well my crazy cake tasted better & not all the extra ingredients that was needed. It is so moist.
Flour, water, oil, cocoa, & vinegar.
I’m sure there are lots who have baked, eaten, or heard of it.
Just thought I would share mine.
Have a great day
Hi, thanks for sharing! This cake is similar to crazy cake but I explain the differences in the post
Great especially with the prices now.
We hope you give it a try soon!
THANK YOU so much
You cannot know what a struggle it has been for me given I am wheat
(I am NOT Celiac thank God)
eggs, and dairy sensitive (in a range 0 to 4 all are 3s)
I would love to have some sort of dessert to serve company that I can eat also
I am bookmarking this and others of yours e.g. the apple one etc.
You’re welcome!
Can’t wait to try this recipe.Sounds and looks great
We hope you love it!
Thanks for another great pantry staple cake! Today this will be my emergency cake as I am prepping food items and snacks and treats for the family as we wait to see about the storm coming to Tampa. Family loves vanilla and yellow cake so they will be happy when I share with them.
We hope it was a hit!
THIS IS SIMPLE & NEAT. TASTES LIKE WEDDING CAKE!
I’m glad you like it!