Dear God ...it's Eggless!!

I have an aversion to eggless recipes! I don't know why, I just do. If its meant to have eggs in it, it shall have eggs in it....that's just the way it is. A lot of people call me for eggless recipes or ask me if I do eggless cakes, I don't, mainly because from a 'chemist' perspective towards cooking, I know what eggs do for cakes and I am yet to gain faith in a substitution. But then that's the thing about cooking, you learn something new every day, you learn something new every time you cook and you learn something new from every one you talk food with! All this happened to me all in one day, last week. I had a party to attend (one I never ended up attending) and I wanted to do a chocolate cake. I opened an old Time Life Series Baking book, got all the ingredients together, started prepping, which is when I realized that there was something missing, this recipe didn't have any eggs, none! I was already wrist deep in the process and there was no turning back ... I was not only baking an eggless cake, I was doing it under duress. So I did it, it smelt great, it rose beautifully and the biggest clincher was, it was yum (if I may say so myself!).

That night was a classic crazy night that our friends are excellent at pulling off. Four of us converged at one home to have a couple of drinks and carry on to the party home later in the night. I had the cake for one of the guests who was the bringing in her birthday, so we figured we needed to be there by midnight. by quarter to twelve, I was certain we weren't budging but then I was also certain the 'birthday girls' boyfriend had alternate plans. So we just stayed and stayed, we stayed so long that the host of the party we were to attend joined us :) ... classic crazy night!

So don't fear the eggless, this is a good recipe to start with. I tweaked it a bit and doused it in ganache, which kept the cake moist through the evening.

Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients: 

200 gms flour

200 gms sugar

50 gms cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

80 gms butter, melted

240 ml warm water

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Icing:

200 gms dark chocolate in pieces

180 ml fresh cream

2 tbsp butter, room temperature

Mix the melted butter, warm water, vinegar, and vanilla extract together in a bowl. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda together in a separate larger bowl. Pour in the liquid and mix together with a spatula till blended well. I don’t use a hand mixer for this cake because I realized it over-aerates the batter and since there are no eggs, the cake comes out a bit denser than required. Bake at 200 C for 20-25 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!