How to Make Poverty Cake (100-Year-Old Recipe) (2024)

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

I often thought my grandparents did some weird things—that is, until I discovered it came from the make-do attitude they learned while raising kids during the Great Depression. They took their limited finances and limited resources and did the best they could with what they had, from homesteading to cleaning and even cooking.

But they weren’t the first generation to learn this make-do attitude. In fact, many generations and many civilizations have had to make do, especially when it came to their cooking and food supplies.

Poverty cake is an ancient and very simple recipe born out of lean times. It’s made from ingredients you probably already have on hand or can easily get at the store. It’s easy to make, and you can create all kinds of variations based on what you have on hand.

There are other variations of this cake called poor man’s cake, economy cake, and depression cake, after cake made during the Great Depression. This recipe probably dates back to the early 1800s.

The texture of poverty cake is something between a dry bread and a pancake. It’s firm enough to eat like a brownie, with a light feel and a slightly sweet flavor. You can make a delicious dessert just using what you have.

Substitutions

The beauty of this cake is that you can use whatever you have on hand to make the cake. You can make some very easy substitutions and still have a delicious dessert or snack.

If you don’t like nutmeg, you could substitute something else. For example, you might want to put some cinnamon in your cake. Or perhaps you would like the flavor of vanilla better. You can also add raisins, nuts, or chocolate chips.

If you don’t have butter, you could use lard or Crisco, as I did in my cake. Butter will make it a little bit fluffier.

Serving Suggestions

If money is tight or you don’t have a lot of ingredients on hand, you could serve your poverty cake as is. Serve it warm as a dessert or serve it up cold as a breakfast. It tastes delicious when sprinkled with powdered sugar.

My daughter enjoyed hers with some cut-up banana, cinnamon, and a dribble of maple syrup. You could serve it with just about any kind of fruit or even a scoop of ice cream!

Alternate Recipe

My kids wanted me to make another batch, but I was low on ingredients, so I decided to use my make-do skills and make it work! Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbs + 1 tsp Crisco
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup water

Directions:

I mixed up the batter, just like in the previous recipe.

The batter was thick and sticky. I poured it (well, more like plopped it) onto my cooking sheet and spread it out a bit so that it was even, then popped it in the oven.

The final result was very similar. This time, the cake raised a little bit more, was a little bit fluffier and moist, but crumbled a bit more easily. Both versions were equally delicious!

Final Thoughts on Poverty Cake

This cake is amazingly easy to make from scratch with ingredients you probably have on hand anyway. The best part of this cake is that it is easy, inexpensive, and flexible. Since it’s a lot like a pancake, you can serve it for breakfast, serve it as dessert, or even as a snack. So have fun dressing it up or eating it as is.

It’s great for those surprise guests, hangry kids, and busy lives! I don’t like making recipes that require fancy ingredients that I’ll never use again, and I love being able to whip something up when my kids are getting hungry.