Sunday, March 11, 2007

the eggless wonder

finding recipes that work really well and do not use or include traditional ingredient conventions has always been of great interest to me. these days with so many different kinds of allergies rampant, people following the latest diet which usually omits some ingredient or groups of them, or even those people, like myself, who have culturally different eating habits, it is useful to have a variety of options from which to choose. it's no fun not to be able to enjoy the same kinds of foods as everyone else.

the other day while going through my things in my cleaning frenzy, i luckily found a whole bunch of missing files. in one of these was this recipe which i used to make [mostly for a friend who is allergic to many things], until i lost it. a fortuitous reunion for me since i am trying to use up excess amounts of flour before passover arrives in 3 weeks.

this is a basic all purpose chocolate cake which surprisingly has no eggs in it and can be made either dairy or parve [non-dairy]. despite being egg-less, it is just as good as a regular chocolate cake. admittedly, the texture is somewhat drier than your standard one but this can be balanced by using a moist frosting. sometimes i will use a plain strong coffee solution and, with a large pastry brush, moisten each of the two cakes prior to icing them. it is great for a birthday cake or just an everyday one. it makes terrific cupcakes, too, which can be brought to work for that single serving .... frosted, of course :)

the cake can be made with either cake flour or all purpose, however the cake flour must be sifted first, along with the cocoa. it also uses buttermilk, or soured milk, which you can make yourself. it will not work without this, as the acidity of the liquid is essential to activate the rising agent which, in this case, is baking soda. the cake is successfully made parve by using soymilk and souring it with plain white vinegar.

baker beware: for those of you who do not follow recipes, i suggest you give in and do it the way i show here. baking is an exact science. you need the buttermilk or soured [soy] milk and you need the baking soda [not powder] for the necessary leavening reaction to take place, both while mixing the batter and baking it. remember: sift, sift, sift — this ensures there are no small lumps which always seem present in both cake flour and cocoa.

eggless all purpose chocolate cake

ingredients:

1 2/3 c. cake flour or all purpose
1 c. sugar
1 tsp baking SODA
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp cocoa powder (dark is better)

1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. buttermilk or soured milk*
3 1/2 - 4 tbsp prune baking paste or applesauce**
2 tsp vanilla extract

*to make soured milk/soymilk: measure 1 c of the liquid and add 1 tbsp white vinegar. stir and wait about 10 minutes until it sets; it will become thicker. do not skip doing this.

**this is optional but highly recommended. i have found it helps to add extra moisture content due to the absence of the egg. the prune baking paste goes extremely well with chocolate and is not noticeable.

method:

preheat oven to 350F.

butter or grease two 8 inch round cake pans (if you go larger, it will not work). you can make cupcakes too but remember to cook them for less time. test after 12 - 15 minutes.

measure out the flour and then sift it to remove any small lumps. this is required if you are using cake flour. i usually aerate the cake flour with a whisk before measuring. you do not need to sift first to measure out the flour as in other recipes.

sift the cocoa into the flour and then add the other ingredients. if you can, use the dark dutch processed cocoa or something like valrhona. it makes a big difference colour wise and taste wise.

mix them together well. you can resift everything at this point if you think there are any lumps.

mix together the wet ingredients: the oil, buttermilk or soured milk, applesauce or prune baking paste and the vanilla extract.

add this to the dry ingredients and mix well. you can do this by hand or with a beater. make sure there are no dry spots in the batter. it must be completely smooth.

divide these equally into the two pans. it will not look like there is enough but there is.

bake the cakes for only 20 minutes. do NOT open the oven before or they may fall. test after 20 minutes, you may need to bake a few minutes longer.

let them cool for 5 minutes in the pan. remove them to a rack and cool them completely.

they can be iced with your favourite frosting or served with confectioners sugar dusted over them, or even better — whipped cream.

enjoy!


31 comments:

Pamela said...

Hi Burekaboy,

Your cake turned out perfect. Very nice photos too. You have a strange purple light going there, are you working under a blue light?! Actually I think they can sanitise water with ultraviolet light so maybe it's working on your kitchen! Whaddya mean only one serving to bring to work?! My colleagues would be very disappointed if I didn't share!

Linda said...

i could use a piece of that cake this very moment.

burekaboy — said...

pammie - LOL, no funky purple lights happening. might as well have been though since the lighting (at night) in my kitchen is wretched. it's actually the pyrex bowls which are this weird cranberry colour. bringing stuff to work for others too is a great way to diet ... saves you from overindulging!

linda - hehe, i can use cake anytime of the day ;P

Anonymous said...

I'll have to try this out. Can you substitute melted butter for the oil? Or perhaps melted chocolate (mmmm...)? Btw, love the pesach countdown graphic :).

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

That's an interesting cake! I also sometimes make lighter versions of certain baked goods...

Food for BMS said...

Hi Burekaboy,
I am always looking for eggless cake recipes. Thanks for sharing the recipe. This one is a must try on my list :) Eggless & Chocolate. Very Nice photos.

TNL said...

eggless??? yay!! I literally retch at the smell of egg wash on pies and stuff...seriously,I can smell it even when it is baked. Let me try this one..with your exact directions, I can do that!
my two,yes,two boys will love this!
trupti

burekaboy — said...

shelly - i haven't tried it that way but i am sure you can try using melted butter and chocolate in its equivalent amount. it's probably about 2 to 3 oz (like bakers sqaures equivs).

the counter was to motivate/scare me into action. umm, it seems to be working since there's about 2 wks left ONLY!! then again, i work well under pressure.

rosa - it's a pretty good cake considering the standard egg is missing from it.

hi food - thanks for the comment. hope you try it; i have another one too which is eggless and will post it one of these days [however if you want it also, email me].

trupti - i think eggs can be one of those love/hate items.

this cake is actually perfect for them to make with you; the batter is really good unbaked also!! hope you enjoy it. don't forget lots of icing too :DD

Sharmi said...

Hi Burekaboy, Came here through Trupti's blog. You have a great blog and nice recipes. loved the eggless cake. Looks yummy!!

cheers
sharmi

burekaboy — said...

hi sharmi - welcome and thanks for the visit :D glad you like what you saw & hope to see you again in the future.

Anonymous said...

i made your cake today and it was delicious and so straightforward to make!! i stacked them on top of eachother, put a layer of raspberry jam in between and topped the whole thing with melted dark chocolate. everybody loved it and i will definitely make this cake again! thank you for sharing this recipe with us :)
greetings from switzerland x

burekaboy — said...

hi barbara! - thanks for the visit and feedback about the cake. i'm very glad to hear that both you and everyone else loved it :) it sounds great with the jam and melted chocolate covering :DD i hadn't thought of using jam as a filling. (if you took a picture of it, i'd love to see how it turned out :) )

i have another eggless version for a chocolate cake which i will be posting over the next month or two, if that interests you. so stay tuned!

Anonymous said...

hi burekaboy, it must be a very swiss/austrian/german thing, but we have a lot of recipes for cakes/biscuits which involve jam of some sort or other lol so when i saw that the cakes were quite thin in height i decided they would be the perfect size when stacked (very greedy), hence something had to go in between... (mind you, only a very very thin layer!)
unfortunately the cake was gone before i could get a decent picture of it, but next time i will make sure to get a "before" shot of it.
i'm looking forward to this other recipe you have, one can never have too many chocolate cake recipes ;)

Anonymous said...

Pix are interesting.Came across your blog as I was seaching 4 eggless recipes. Tho' professionally I am a food stylist I have 2 agree with you that baking is a task that needs precise adherence to measurement and steps. There are times even I have failed.Anyway would give your recipe a try.Thanks and have a great day.

burekaboy — said...

Peng sc shekar - hi there :) thanks for your visit and comment.

you're absolutely right, baking is more precise and requires sticking to the rules of the recipe (for the most part) as opposed to general everyday cooking.

baking without the use of eggs can be challenging. there are, however, quite a few recipes which work without this building block even though there is no real replacement for them.

if you do try this, i'd be interested to know what you think. btw, your pix are amazing (but i guess i don't have to tell you! :D).

Anonymous said...

O' Boy,what a delicious cake! i tried your half recipe for this particular cake and it came out wonderful,delicious and soft.
must say that your blog is as amazing as the recipes posted here.
cheers!

burekaboy — said...

hi urbanbaker26 - i'm happy to hear you enjoyed the cake. several other people have also tried it and very much enjoyed it. it is also very good with whipped cream and fresh strawberries, if you like that sort of thing :D

thanks for taking the time to comment and for the feedback. it is much appreciated. hope to see you in the future.

Anonymous said...

Hi Burekaboy,
Do I need to make any changes to this recipe to bake it in a 13/9" pan instead of two 8" round. I don't have any round cake pans. By the way I love this blog and did try several of your recipes. YUM!!
-Archana

burekaboy — said...

hi archana :) - thanks for the really nice comment about my blog and recipes in it. happy to hear you liked the things you've tried so far. i hope you continue to find other good ones in the future.

as for this particular chocolate cake, yes, absolutely, you can bake it as one whole cake in a 9 x 13 pan. another person used the recipe to make a birthday cake using that sized pan and it worked perfectly. good luck with it :D it's a very easy cake to make. if you want a layered cake with icing, you can cut the baked 13 x 9 in half and stack the two pieces. you can also make cupcakes for a smaller version. the cake is very good with a chocolate icing, or as i suggested to others, it's especially good with whipped cream and fresh fruit like strawberries :))

burekaboy — said...

archana -- forgot to say: so, no -- no changes necessary; just bake in the larger pan. just keep an eye on the cake as it may bake a bit faster. don't open the oven too soon though as it may fall; check it about 7 to 8 minutes before it's finished baking. hope that helps.

Anonymous said...

Thanks burekaboy for the prompt reply :-) I'll let you know how the cake turned out.
--Archana

Anonymous said...

Hi Burekaboy,
I made this cake last night and it was a big hit with my guests. This cake was light, airy and very,very moist..An eggless wonder as the name suggests. thanks for the wonderful recipe.
--Archana

burekaboy — said...

hi archana - thanks for letting me know how it went & very happy to hear that everyone liked it! it's hard to find good recipes for cakes without eggs; no one would really know there were no eggs in this cake :))

Unknown said...

Hi thanks for this recipe, I have been looking a lot for information regarding the rising agent to be used in eggless cakes, Thanks a lot coz u stressed on that point , I love ur blog, it has so much useful information which we are exactly looking out for :) Thanks a lot for the recipe, I will surely let u know how it turns out.

burekaboy — said...

hi rv - glad you found the information useful and like/d what you see in my blog :) big thanks for your compliments.

i do hope you like the cake. even the uncooked batter tastes good, lol! the cake has gotten very positive reviews so far so i don't think you'll be disappointed.

Anonymous said...

I have been experimenting with many vegan chocolate cake recipes as they are my ABSOLUTE favorite with chocolate icing. So.....this is the BEST recipe by far! Why am I not surprised? I ate most of the cake alone and am not ashamed one bit! I topped it with a vegan buttercream icing. Can't wait to eat the next one.

Anonymous said...

Hey, how about chocolate icing AND whipped cream and strawberries!!! YUM. I was even able to find the prune paste no problems.

burekaboy — said...

lorrie - LOL, you wouldn't have to twist my arm to get me to eat a cake slathered in chocolate icing!

glad you liked the recipe. did you use the applesauce in it? someone tried it recently and left it out; this person found the cake dry (but i talk about that problem in the recipe) -- you may want to try it using the prune paste. sounds yuck but makes a big difference. thanks for letting me know how it turned out.

OOPS, didn't see your other comment before i answered. so i guess you did use the prune paste!

whipped cream, icing AND strawberries?!!!!! now you're talking, girl!! :))

Anonymous said...

OH yeah!

thegoanmallu said...

googled eggless lemon curd and i reached here. that cake looks delicious! bookmarked to be made some day...

burekaboy — said...

goanmallu - welcome & glad you found your way here through google. hope you enjoy the cake if you give it a try.

i left you info re the eggless lemon curd in your chickpea cookie comment.