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Poor Man’s Cake

poor mans cake on a white plate. no eggs, butter or milk in this vegan cake recipe with raisins
Photo Credit
Sam Jones/Quinn Brein
The Editors
Yield
12 to 15 servings
Category
Cakes and Frostings
Course
Desserts
Credit
Ruth Gagen Brentwood Historical Society, Brentwood, New Hamp
Sources
Yankee Magazine Church Suppers and Potluck Dinners Cookbook
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Why do we call this recipe Poor Man’s Cake? It’s a vintage cake recipe created during the Depression Era during the 1930s. The “poor man” refers to the ingredients; no butter, milk, or eggs are needed! This doesn’t affect the taste because it’s the best cake ever!

Most of these ingredients should be found right in the pantry. Just add raisins—which you boil for plumpness. If you wish, you could always add walnuts. This is a great vegan option for a moist, delicious cake!

It’s fine without frosting, but we like to pair the cake with a cream cheese frosting, such as the one we use on our Best Ever Carrot Cake. If you don’t have frosting, a sprinkling of powdered sugar works, too.

Enjoy this old-fashioned cake! We’re so glad that we rediscovered it in our recipe archives. It’s a keeper!

Ingredients
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups hot water
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 package (15 ounces) raisins
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water
cream cheese frosting (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.
  2. In a pan, combine brown sugar, hot water, salt, shortening, raisins, and spices. Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
  3. In a bowl, combine flour and dissolved baking soda, add to the batter, and mix well. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  4. Cool in the pan. Frost, if desired.
About The Author

The Old Farmer’s Almanac Editors

We love introducing fun new recipes as well as time-tested recipes, straight from the archives! Read More from The Old Farmer’s Almanac Editors
 

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Comments

Gwendolyn Egan (not verified)

2 weeks 1 day ago

i copied a recipe out of Yankee Magazine from Lois Chappell of Portland, Conn back in 2000 or maybe earlier.
it was called Poor Man's Fruitcake and nearly the same recipe except it used white sugar.
i made changes over the years, keeping the dry ingredients but adding and subtracting different fruits and ending up with cherries, pineapple, golden raisins, walnuts,apricot brandy, flavorings etc which has now evolved into my fruit cake recipe.

Lynda in Oregon (not verified)

1 year 4 months ago

It costs a lot of money to be poor .....

At today's prices, that recipe would include.... $1.17 worth of brown sugar
1/2 cent worth of salt
8 cents worth of Crisco
$2.98 worth of raisins (!)
19 cents worth of cinnamon
91 cents worth of cloves (that stuff is PRICEY!!!)
one cent worth of baking soda
and $1.32 worth of flour

...for a total of $6.67.

You can buy a box of Duncan Hines spice cake mix for $1.68, add 45 cents worth of oil and 58 cents worth of eggs ... $2.71 without the raisins.

Boxed cake mixes emerged in the 1930s, but was not an available to most people. Betty Crocker was not introduced till 1947. Raising her children during the depression It would have been a cold day before my grandmother would have used a box cake mix. On the positive side they lived on a farm and had access to butter, milk and eggs if needed. This recipe is one she made us very often and it’s still dear to my heart.

Boxed cake mixes emerged in the 1930s, but was not an available to most people. Betty Crocker was not introduced till 1947. Raising her children during the depression It would have been a cold day before my grandmother would have used a box cake mix. On the positive side they lived on a farm and had access to butter, milk and eggs if needed. This recipe is one she made us very often and it’s still dear to my heart.

Linda, This recipe is all real food. The commercial cake mixes these days are full of chemicals and are ultra-processed. I was astonished just how much. I think it's worth more money to eat like our grandparents did.

Linda (not verified)

1 year 4 months ago

Thank you for the depression recipes. So glad you searched the archives. I have been looking for this type of recipes especially main dishes. Thank you

Michael (not verified)

1 year 4 months ago

Great recipe. Easy to whip up and I like that it is VEGAN. Definitely a keeper recipe.

Mary Barruzza (not verified)

1 year 4 months ago

Our South Philly family called it Depression Cake and used leftover coffee in place of water.