Eggless, butterless Chocolate cake

I’ve got to say, I never would have wanted to make a butterless, eggless cake. But this season of lent changed everything.
 I love eggs. And I love butter. If the french love their  butter, they have a great reason to do so.
But a friend of mine was begging me for chocolate cake, and she too was under a ‘no meat, no egg vow’ for Lent. So I decided, what the heck! Lemme give it a shot. And O.M.G!

This cake was a surprise! Ya, that’s how I can describe it. A surprise! You miss the butter a bit, but only if you know it’s not there. Otherwise, its just as good. Urgh! Who am I kidding, its much better in so many ways!

I beg of you, try it once, and then you’ll believe me.

Thanks to Madhuram for this lovely recipe!

I tweaked the recipe a bit, considering I did not have silken tofu, or icing in a box.
So here’s my variation of Madhuram’s recipe.

Eggless, butterless Chocolate cake Makes 12 slices

You will be needing

– 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
– 1/2 tsp Salt (I found the original 1 tsp a little too overwhelming)
– 1 tsp Baking Powder
– 2 tsp Baking Soda
– 3/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
– 2 Cups Granulated Sugar (Powdered)
– 1 Cup Vegetable Oil (I used sunflower oil. Any flavourless oil will do)
– 1 Cup Hot Coffee (I brewed fresh coffee in the coffee maker with 1 cup water and 1 heaped tablespoon of coffee powder
– 1/2 Cup Milk
– 1/2 Cup yoghurt
– 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

For the icing
– 2 cups of icing sugar
– 1/2 cup of dark unsweetened cocoa powder
– A few spoons of water

 Method

– Sieve the dry ingredients, i.e., the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Sieve thrice, and keep aside.

– Prepare the baking tin and line with  parchment paper.

– Combine the wet ingredients in a large bowl, i.e., Vegetable oil, coffee, milk, yoghurt and vanilla extract. Stir in the powdered sugar till combined. Add the salt and stir.

– Combine the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients.

– Pour into the prepared  pan and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

– Cool on  a wire rack. Never try icing a warm cake. That’s just a disaster, as the sugar melts and gets watery.

To make the icing
– Sieve the cocoa and the icing sugar to remove lumps. Add the water, teaspoon by teaspoon and stir well till you reach spreading consistency. You can slice the cake into two layers and then ice it, I did just the top and sides.

– While icing, it helps if you place the cake on 4 strips of parchment paper arranged in a square. Frost the cake, and pull out the parchment paper. No drips on the serving plate!