Lately, I’ve been inspired by the retro baking recipes from tattered family cookbooks and recipe tins. While tweaking a vintage chocolate cake recipe called Depression cake, another cake from the same era and frugal spirit kept appearing in my searches. War cake is another eggless, milkless, butterless cake and it was begging to be baked each time I came across it.
War cake is a rustic cake loaded with dried fruit and spices. It’s denser than a pound cake but not yet in fruitcake territory. More utilitarian than showstopper, war cake is not the prettiest cake I’ve displayed on my kitchen table.
But it’s what’s on the inside that counts—a beautiful flavor and texture that stays moist for days. It has a comforting spicy molasses flavor that reminds me of my mom’s molasses cookies or the spiced ontbijtkoek my mother-in-law serves for breakfast when we visit her in the Netherlands.
What Is War Cake?
War cake is an eggless, milkless, butterless cake recipe that helped keep dessert on the table during the shortages and rationing periods of World War I, II, and the Great Depression. I’ve seen several other variations of the name, like 1918 war cake or Canadian war cake.
The cake is sweetened with dried fruits and molasses, honey, or brown sugar—all historically easier to acquire during lean times than white cane sugar. Like Depression cake, war cake contains no milk, using water for the liquid instead. Originally a butterless cake, bakers would use shortening or rendered fats, like tallow or bacon grease that they saved when cooking.
Simply Recipes / Mark Beahm
My Take On a Modern War Cake
I didn’t feel like I needed to change many things about the vintage war cake recipes I found, but here are the substitutions I made for a tastier cake that’s suited to modern pantries.
- Many versions called for molasses, but I prefer using just brown sugar. When I tried using molasses or a mix of molasses and brown sugar, the molasses flavor completely took over.
- Instead of water, I plumped the dried fruit in coffee. They soak up the coffee, brown sugar, and butter and I was tempted to eat them warm right out of the pot. The coffee flavor wasn’t strong in the baked cake but accentuated the flavor of the brown sugar and dried fruits.
- Using butter in a cake that’s traditionally butter-free may be contentious, but I prefer butter’s rich flavor to shortening, and rendered fats seemed a bit too strong and savory a flavor.
Simple Swaps and Substitutions
Frugality and making do with what you have on hand are at the essence of this cake, making ingredient swaps and substitutions not only easy but authentic.
- I use half raisins and half chopped dates. You can try sultanas, currants, dried apricots, dried cherries, prunes, or candied citrus peels, chopping larger fruits into raisin-sized pieces.
- You can add 1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped toasted nuts like walnuts or pecans. Reduce the dried fruit by the same amount.
- For a nuttier flavor, try replacing half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat or dark rye flour. Many versions of this cake called for barley flour or other grains to conserve the use of wheat.
- I love how the coffee accentuates the molasses flavors from the brown sugar and dried fruits. You can substitute brewed coffee with 1 cup of water and 2 to 3 teaspoons of instant coffee granules. If you prefer the cake to be caffeine-free, you can use decaf coffee or plain water.
Simply Recipes / Mark Beahm
