Why the famous chocolate mayonnaise cake is not the legendary hundred dollar cake

Food & Drink · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The chocolate mayonnaise cake is often shrouded in myths of Great Depression scarcity or exorbitant secret recipes. Yet, the truth is far more mundane. It was a post-war creation, distinct from the famous hundred dollar cake, and its origins were mangled by decades of internet repetition and persistent culinary folklore.

The confusion surrounding the chocolate mayonnaise cake stems from a single newspaper column. On March 6, 1945, Cissy Gregg published two distinct recipes in the Louisville Courier-Journal. Because these recipes appeared together, they became inextricably linked in the public imagination. Over time, the mayonnaise cake was frequently misidentified as the legendary hundred dollar cake—or even the thousand dollar cake, depending on how much a storyteller enjoyed exaggeration. Despite Cissy Gregg’s repeated efforts to clarify that these were two separate entities, the myth proved impossible to kill, eventually becoming a staple of internet misinformation.

Common wisdom often incorrectly attributes the cake to the Great Depression or wartime rationing. However, the 1945 version did not gain popularity until 1948, during the height of the American post-war economic boom. Even the earlier 1927 iteration of the recipe predates the Great Depression by several years. The recipe itself relies on a simple combination of sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, soda, vanilla, mayonnaise, and hot water. When prepared correctly, the result is a light, chocolate-rich dessert that bears no trace of its savory, mayonnaise-based origin.

The process of making the cake is straightforward but requires attention to detail. The dry ingredients—sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, and soda—must be sifted together multiple times to ensure they are thoroughly combined. Once sifted, the wet ingredients are incorporated, and the batter is baked in a greased pan at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Whether baked in a 10-inch square pan or two 8-inch layer pans, the cake typically requires 22 to 30 minutes in the oven. It is traditionally finished with a cocoa or chocolate frosting, completing a dessert that remains a fascinating example of how culinary history can be rewritten by myth.

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