Easy Wacky Pumpkin Crazy Cake

Wacky pumpkin crazy cake recipe is a dairy free dessert with no milk, no egg, no butter but tons of flavor. Homemade and moist, it is perfect for an easy Fall treat baked in a 8×8 pan or make year round.

What is Crazy Cake?

Because it is a bit wacky that you don’t need the 3 traditionally necessary ingredients like eggs, butter and milk to make it. Instead, like our dairy free brownies, a bit of oil is used with water. Popular in the depression era when these items were rationed, it has come back to being very popular today! I’m telling you you’ll never know the difference when it is done. It’s just as moist and fluffy as if they were in there, as long as you follow our tricks to keep it that way.

Crazy Pumpkin Cake with Cake Mix

Now if you are in a rush by all means you can just make our 2 ingredient pumpkin bread, no milk or butter involved in that one either. That one uses cake mix which is why it makes it just so simple. If you want to go more of a homemade from scratch route then this one is the way to go. Similar, fluffier, and made in a bigger pan.

A year or so ago we cut as much lactose out of our diet as possible to see if it would help some gut issues we were having. It has really helped and most of the time we can’t even tell the difference. We started with these dairy free chocolate chip cookies which we loved, and then moved on to cakes and breads. This is one of our favorites.

OK so I am VERY picky when it comes to baking, I hate when I spend all that time to create some yum and when it is done it’s baked a bit too long and has dried out. You can fix that so it never happens again. The difference of just one too many minutes in a hot oven can be the difference between the moistest cake ever, and an okay creation.

How to Bake Moist Pumpkin Crazy Cake

1. Always preheat the oven
2. Place the baking rack in the middle position
3. Set baking time to the minimum amount of minutes suggested
4. Turn on the light, if the middle no longer looks wet and it has risen it is time to check for doneness
5. Gently touch the very middle of the cake with your finger.
   • this is better than using a toothpick
   • if it springs back immediately it is done and should be taken out IMMEDIATELY
   • if it depresses and doesn’t bounce back up, bake for 2 more minutes and try again
6. Once done set pan on a cooling rack

If you choose to add our cream cheese frosting without butter to the top wait until it is at room temperature first so it doesn’t melt and slide right off.

This one was made in a square 8×8 cake pan sprayed with non stick spray. This size will take about 40 minutes to bake. This is how long to bake mini muffins if you want something really quick to pop into your mouth. Those are really fun for kids for sure. Regular sizes will take a bit longer, more like 18 minutes but a great option as well.

Pumpkin Wacky Cake Ingredients

• 1.5 c all purpose flour
• 1 c sugar
• Baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Pumpkin can be bought in a can, or you can make homemade pressure cooker pumpkin
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 c water

Now let’s talk about the liquid for this. There are wacky cake recipes out there that call for hot water, and we are not. The difference is that most are for a chocolate crazy cake variety. The purpose of heating it up in that case is to bring out the flavor in the cocoa and make it more rich. In ours we have a different flavor profile so that isn’t necessary.

With that said you really could use other things for the liquid. Other than maybe substituting with a clear soda I don’t think another would pair better with this Fall taste so I just go with that. If you wanted to use coconut milk or dairy free milk variety like almond milk I haven’t tried that, but could work. Just one of many pumpkin desserts with pumpkin puree on our site.

Now if you wanted to transition this into more of our Gingerbread Pumpkin Cake you could add a bit of gingerbread spice into the mix but we aren’t going for a duo of flavors this go around. If you wanted to swap the flavors around you could leave out the pumpkin and pie spiced cake add in and go with other variations really.

Easy Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Spray an 8×8-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  • no stand mixer needed
  • some mix it right in the pan but I think it sticks too much once baked so I’m a no for that option
• Use a spoon to form wells in different areas around the surface of the dry ingredient mixture; two large wells and two small.
• This is meant to keep the wet ingredients separate until the water is added.
• Scoop the pumpkin into one of the large wells.
• Pour the vegetable oil into the other large well, then the vinegar and vanilla separately into the two small wells. Then pour the water into the bowl and mix until well combined.
• Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
• Bake the cake at 350 F for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean….or middle touched gently springs back.

Cool completely on a wire rack to room temperature then top with the frosting of your choice. A simple one is just to use 1 cup of powdered sugar whisked together with a bit of water or cashew milk.

Pumpkin Wacky Cake Bundt

Yet another shape you could make with this same batter would Mini Bundt Cake. You just need a pan for that which makes 6 at a time and really fun to do. In Oct or Nov you can stack two of those on top of one another with the flat ends together and it comes out shaped like a pumpkin too!! A fun idea for kids.

Any shape you decide to do, I bet will be a winner in your household too. A great option if you don’t have one or any of the 3 left out ingredients on hand, or you need a cake with no milk to enjoy together. Jump to recipe and let us know what you think.