Recipes are born all the time. But, recipes that are born in hard times? They’re special, like this depression-era Crazy Spice Eggless Cake. Creative bakers figured out how to put a tasty dessert on the table, even without the eggs and butter we so easily take for granted.

One of my readers shared this cake with me, straight from her family’s recipe card. And, I’m so glad she did! The crumb is wonderfully moist, and the spices are warm enough for the coldest winter night. I’m going to make it again, and the eggs can just stay jealous in the fridge.

Eggless Cake

I’m willing to bet that if you could peek inside your grandmother’s recipes, you would find something like this eggless cake recipe. I’ve seen them called wacky cake, depression cake, war cake, and crazy cake. And, I make a chocolate crazy cake, myself.

My foray into making cake without eggs was simply the result of my curiosity and not personal hardship. But, for millions of bakers during World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, finding a ready supply of eggs and butter was simply not feasible. Traditional baked desserts were a luxury, and this kind of “crazy cake” helped make it possible for even the families who were often going without to occasionally enjoy a sweet treat.

Cake without Eggs

You’d be amazed at how good this cake tastes. This is not some awfully dense brick of dough that’s been given a dusting of sweetener and called cake. I’m telling you, this cake has a moist and fluffy crumb that just shines with a rich and creamy frosting.

Don’t be startled by the vinegar in this recipe, either! You don’t taste it at all. It reacts with the baking soda to create an acid-base reaction (remember those science fair volcanoes?) which is what makes the cake rise without any eggs or baking powder.

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This coffee flavored cake is truly for coffee lovers. The coffee flavors both the cake and the frosting, cutting the sweetness without detracting from the flavor. But you gotta like coffee. A lot. Luckily, we do, so this is a very popular cake in our house.

Coffee Flavored Cake

Our friend Tom introduced us to this cake last year and I couldn’t get it out of my head. His version started with a cake mix, and it was truly irresistible. So, I challenged myself to recreate it from scratch. This is truly a coffee lover’s dream come true.

As much as I love a great coffee cake -which is typically made without a bit of coffee in it, but served with coffee- this is a cake for the coffee lover. Coffee flavored cake topped with fluffy coffee frosting? I very happily make and eat this cake as often as possible.

Coffee Flavored Cake Recipe

To make this little piece of coffee heaven, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• instant coffee
• water
• brown sugar
• white sugar
• vegetable or olive oil
• eggs
• vanilla extract
• all purpose flour
• baking powder
• salt
• coffee frosting

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As fluffy as a summer cloud, this intense coffee frosting is for true coffee lovers! Top chocolate cake, coffee cake, vanilla cupcakes, or sandwich between your favorite cookies.

This is a coffee lover’s dream come true.

Coffee Frosting

In our family, we love coffee – a lot. We also love cake. And we take our frostings seriously. This coffee-flavored frosting is always a great choice for chocolate cake, naturally, since coffee and chocolate go so well together.

But don’t stop there! It makes a killer filling between two cookies of just about any type. If you’d drink a cup of coffee with that cookie, you can frost it with coffee frosting. From 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies to Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies, we have so many options for cookies here.

Chocolate Chip Blondies are heavenly when topped with this frosting too. Pour a cup of coffee and let’s frost something!

Coffee Flavored Frosting

To make this coffee-fanatic fantasy frosting, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• instant coffee
• water
• butter
• powdered sugar
• vanilla
• heavy cream

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Pineapple coconut cake is a rich white cake full of pineapple flavor and just a hint of coconut, layered with a velvety smooth, indulgent coconut cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with toasted coconut. It’s the perfect dessert for coconut and pineapple lovers alike. 

Pineapple Coconut Cake

Handy canned pineapple and a splash of coconut milk make this special cake reminiscent of a Pina Colada. You already know how much I love a well-stocked pantry and these are two foods that you will always find in my kitchen.

This is not your average pineapple cake. The pineapple is pureed and mixed into the actual white cake batter so you get the tropical flavor in every bite. The resulting batter was so moist and pineapple-y that I could hardly believe it.

Coconut Frosting

In a nod of understanding to all of the people who can’t get past the texture of coconut, this is a smooth frosting flavored with creamy coconut milk. This gives the frosting a subtle coconut taste without the texture that some might find off-putting.

The higher fat content in canned coconut milk makes the frosting nice and creamy. Use the full fat variety of canned coconut milk rather than the lite or reduced-fat versions for the best results.

The coconut milk gets blended with cream cheese and powdered sugar to become a creamy sweet cake frosting that’s worth licking the spoon for. Please note that refrigerated coconut milk will not work in this recipe.

When making the easy coconut cake frosting, be sure to only beat the cream cheese in with the rest of ingredients until just combined. If you beat it for too long, the icing is prone to become runny no matter how much more powdered sugar you add.

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Vanilla sweet cream ice cream filled with chunks of birthday cake and plenty of sprinkles is as much fun to make as it is to eat!

This birthday cake ice cream is my current favorite flavor. And yes, I just declared a new favorite ice cream for at least the 10th time on this website. How could I possibly choose a forever favorite when I’m constantly trying new flavors to share with you?

Prior to making this ice cream, I don’t remember the last time I tasted a funfetti cake topped with sprinkles frosting. Let me tell you, this cake was a time machine back to my childhood. I remember enjoying these cakes so very much at birthday parties. (And there simply aren’t enough opportunities for funfetti cakes as adults – let’s change that, ok?)

Could I have made the cake and the frosting from scratch for this ice cream? Absolutely! Could you do that? You bet! That said, there are a couple of reasons why I didn’t mess with doing that for this ice cream. First, if I’m being honest, it felt like overkill for a batch of ice cream.

And second, I don’t think it will make that big a difference. Might it be even tastier? Maybe, but not enough that I was willing to work through three different recipes just to make the ice cream I was craving.

Birthday Cake Ice Cream

You’ll need the following ingredients to make this recipe:

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