Ways to save at grocery store and have your cake and eat it, too

This may seem bizarre to some and even repulsive to those who don't like mayonnaise on a sandwich. However, bear with me and hear me out......
With eggs and butter (even oils) so costly at the grocery store, you can still make a little cake without breaking the budget.

Mayonnaise - yes, mayonnaise.

Full-fat, real mayonnaise has eggs and it has oil. It has what you need to make a cake.

But you say, "Isn't mayonnaise expensive, too????" And yes, it can be. It can also be cheaper than eggs and butter or oil for baking. You can use high end or store brand as long as it's real mayonnaise and not "light," "fat-free," or made with "olive oil."

You can economize by purchasing it when it's on sale and also use a coupon. You can also use more economical "store brand" and get just as good results.

Example: This particular week, Mid-March 2025, at the Food Lion grocery store their 30 oz jar of real mayonnaise is $2.69 and there is a digital coupon of $.95. So if you use 1 cup of this mayonnaise your cost is $.41 for the oil and eggs in your cake! This week a single white/large store brand egg is $.47 each!

So whether you're trying to economize or simply have just run out of eggs and/or oil at home, give it a try. (NOTE: You can use mayonnaise with cake mix also with great success.)

Basic vanilla "mayonnaise cake" recipe:

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup cold water

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sift dry ingredients together 2 or 3 times. Set it aside. Thoroughly blend together mayonnaise and sugar. Alternate adding sifted dry ingredients and water to the mayo/sugar mixture. Begin and end with flour. Blend in vanilla. 

Check out my post on Chocolate Pumpkin "Mayonnaise" Cake - click here