This recipe is one of many variations on “Eggless Butterless Milkless Cake,” an unusual recipe that became a staple during the food shortages of both World War One and World War Two. I’ve found similar recipes across dozens of cookbooks from the 1910s to the 1940s. Interestingly, while wartime cookbooks usually referred to this type of cake with names like “Eggless Butterless Milkless Cake” or “War Cake,” cookbooks published during the Great Depression often call it names such as “Depression Cake,” “Economy Cake,” or “Poor Man’s Cake.”

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