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Home » Baking

Published: Sep 27, 2013 · Modified: Apr 21, 2020 by Sandhya Ramakrishnan · This post may contain affiliate links

War Cake Recipe

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War cake is a simple and delicious cake baked with very basic ingredients. This cake is egg less and does not have milk, butter and sugar that were rationed during the Great depression / war times.
War Cake %%

War Cake is one of the first cakes (or maybe the first one), that I ever baked. After our wedding, once I landed in United Sates, I had all the time in this world. So watching television and going to the library were my only two pass time until I got my driving license. This recipe for the War Cake is from the food network made by Sara Moulton.

The name of the cake caught my attention and this was an egg less recipe. I was not using eggs those days and until recently I did not even know how to crack open an egg without creating a mess. Now I bake with eggs and I am getting a little comfortable dealing with it, but still when I have to crack several eggs like to make meringue or something, it makes me a little nervous.

What is a War Cake -

The cake is called the war cake because this was made during the wars. There was a lot of rationing of ingredients during war times and certain ingredients were hard to get. This cake was made with ingredients that were easily available without rationing. The harder to get ingredients were mostly the milk, butter, egg and sugar. This cake uses none of those ingredients. Often this cake is also called the depression cake that was commonly made during the Great Depression.

Boiled Raisin Cake / Poor Man's Cake / Depression Cake -

This cake also is known as boiled raisin cake, where the term boiled refers to the boiling of the raisin with the sugar and spices to get a syrup base for the recipe. The origin for this cake is US and this dated way back to the American civil war. It is baked often during the great depression times and hence the name Depression Cake. Since the ingredients used to bake the War cake is nothing fancy and is affordable by not too wealthy people as well, it is also called the Poor man's Cake.

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The texture of the cake is quite dense, but the raisins give it a nice texture. Also the spices in the cake are not overwhelming and it works great as a tea /coffee time cake. Considering that this cake was made during the wars as dessert, it is not a bad bake at all.

War Cake %%

Preparation time – 15 mins
Cooking time – 1 hr
Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients to make War Cake – makes a 10 inch tube cake

  • Raisins – 1 lb (about 2 ½ cups)
  • Packed light brown sugar – 2 cups
  • Water – 2 cups
  • Vegetable shortening – 4 tbsp
  • Salt – 2 tsp
  • Ground cinnamon – 2 tsp
  • Ground cloves – ½ tsp
  • All purpose flour – 3 cups
  • Baking soda – 2 tsp

Procedure to make War Cake –

  • Combine the brown sugar, raisin, water, shortening, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a large saucepan. I used both the golden and dark raisin.
War Cake %%
  • Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for about 5 mins stirring frequently until it forms a syrupy kind of texture.
War Cake %%
  • Take it off the flame and let it cool down to room temperature.
War Cake %%
  • Preheat the oven to 350 F. grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.
  • In another bowl, whisk together the flour and the baking soda.
War Cake %%
  • Once the raisin mixture has cooled, fold in the dry ingredients.
War Cake %%
War Cake %%
  • Spoon the mixture into the greased pan and bake for 45-50 mins or until the tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. If the top seems to be browning too quickly, cover with an aluminum foil and continue baking until the center in entirely baked.
War Cake %%
  • Cool for 5 mins in the pan and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
War Cake %%
  • Do not be tempted to slice until it cools entirely.
War Cake %%
  • Serve with whipped cream or dusted with some confectionary sugar. We like it as is, since the cake itself was sweet enough for us.
War Cake %%
Poor Man's Cake

War Cake

War cake is a simple and delicious cake baked with very basic ingredients. This cake is egg less and does not have milk, butter and sugar that were rationed during the Great depression / war times. 

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Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 10 People
Author: Sandhya Ramakrishnan

Equipment

  • Oven
  • Bundt Cake Pan

Ingredients

  • Raisins – 1 lb about 2 ½ cups
  • Packed light brown sugar – 2 cups
  • Water – 2 cups
  • Vegetable shortening – 4 tbsp
  • Salt – 2 tsp
  • Ground cinnamon – 2 tsp
  • Ground cloves – ½ tsp
  • All purpose flour – 3 cups
  • Baking soda – 2 tsp

Instructions

  • Combine the brown sugar, raisin, water, shortening, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a large saucepan. I used both the golden and dark raisin.
  • Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for about 5 mins stirring frequently until it forms a syrupy kind of texture.
  • Take it off the flame and let it cool down to room temperature.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 F. grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.
  • In another bowl, whisk together the flour and the baking soda.
  • Once the raisin mixture has cooled, fold in the dry ingredients.
  • Spoon the mixture into the greased pan and bake for 45-50 mins or until the tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. If the top seems to be browning too quickly, cover with an aluminum foil and continue baking until the center in entirely baked.
  • Cool for 5 mins in the pan and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
  • Do not be tempted to slice until it cools entirely.
  • Serve with whipped cream or dusted with some confectionary sugar. We like it as is, since the cake itself was sweet enough for us.
Tried this recipe?Mention @Sandhya.Ramakrishnan or tag #MyCookingJourney!
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. valli says

    August 03, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    is 1 cup measure = 250 ml ?
    Thanks in advance.

    Reply
    • Sandhya Ramakrishnan says

      August 23, 2017 at 1:21 pm

      Yes Valli!

      Reply
  2. Archana Potdar says

    October 18, 2013 at 5:31 pm

    OMG! what a delicious cake. LOve the name and plan to wage a war with it soon.

    Reply
  3. Pavani N says

    October 07, 2013 at 6:42 pm

    What an interesting cake with just 4tbsp of fat. Will have to try this one out soon. Bookmarked!!

    Reply
  4. Sapana Behl says

    October 01, 2013 at 6:32 pm

    That is one delicious cake ! Love to know about such wonderful cake...

    Reply
  5. Preeti Garg says

    October 01, 2013 at 5:21 pm

    Fabulous cake.. never heard word war with cake.

    Reply
  6. divya says

    September 29, 2013 at 2:02 pm

    looking very tempting n delicious....Excellent pictures as well.

    Reply
  7. Rajani S says

    September 28, 2013 at 4:51 pm

    ANZAC biscuits were also from the wartime. Its great that people came up with recipes like these during the time of hardship. Anyway, the cake looks good and flavorful..

    Reply
  8. Priya Suresh says

    September 27, 2013 at 11:56 pm

    Omg, wat a fabulous cake, warm cake looks absolutely delicious with loads of raisins.

    Reply
  9. Nivedhanams Sowmya says

    September 27, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    War cake is sure to win the hearts!! Nice history and so many variety of names there .. Can I use oil instead of shortening

    Reply
    • shasan18 says

      September 27, 2013 at 4:42 pm

      Sowmya, try substituting it with butter! I usually use butter and shortening vice versa, but never substituted with oil..

      Reply
  10. Manjula Bharath says

    September 27, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    omg fabulous looking war cake 🙂 looks awesome great recipe selection dear !!

    Reply
  11. sangeetha pn says

    September 27, 2013 at 8:14 pm

    fabulous!

    Reply
  12. Srivalli says

    September 27, 2013 at 3:40 pm

    The cake looks stunning Sandhya..I have an almost similar cake..still I don't mind making exactly this..

    Reply
  13. luvtosew says

    September 27, 2013 at 12:34 pm

    Can we use butter instead of veg shortening?

    Reply
    • shasan18 says

      September 27, 2013 at 4:40 pm

      Hi,
      Yes, equal part of butter to shortening! If you are a nut lover, you could also add some walnuts to the cake. I stayed true to its name and hence used the shortening and skipped the nuts.

      Reply

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Sandhya

I am Sandhya Ramakrishnan, author, recipe developer and photographer in this journey! 'My Cooking Journey' is all about family friendly Vegetarian and Vegan recipes from around the World with focus on Indian cuisine.

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