Eggless Chocolate Cake

If ever there was a person who loved eggs in all their beautiful forms, that person is my mother-in-law. Unfortunately, she has developed an allergy to them making it difficult for her to enjoy life's many baked goods...not to mention ruining her breakfasts. :) We are going to visit her and my father-in-law (and two sisters-in-law YAY!) for xmas this year. She and I share December birthdays and I wanted to make her a birthday cake while we were there. The egg allergy throws a distinctive wrench into that plan, though. So I thought I would try out a few eggless cake recipes until I found one that would do her birthday justice. The first one I tried is a chocolate cake with a bunch of my own changes to pump up the flavor and add more heft to the cake. Eggless cakes have a tendency to fall flat. (I also halved this recipe since the original called for a whole lot of flour and I was not sure if we would even end up liking it. Can't be wasting my King Arthur!) So, with no further ado...

You will need:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose King Arthur flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar (I only had one cup and had to substitute the half cup with brown sugar)
1/2 cup cocoa (I used Hershey's Dark)
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cups room temperature coffee (the original recipe calls for water, but...boring!)
1/5 tsp vanilla
***my additions:
1 tsp white vinegar
1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips



I have to apologize for the ugly, hideous counter tops. They were there when we moved in and everything else was so perfect...I feel the need to apologize all the time about them! We redid the cabinets (which were a hideous dark brown fake wood) but have yet to get to the counter tops. I have been using white posterboard for pictures, but sadly, it had an accident and had to be thrown away. One day we will replace them and I can stop whining. My husband will be pleased.



I buy my white vinegar by the gallon. It's good for cleaning, better than Oxy-Clean in the washing machine, removes hard water stains on dishes, etc. (We have well water and hard water stains are a concern.)



Add the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt to a mixer and stir to combine. The recipe calls for sifting, but I don't sift.



Now add your sugar. (See those little clumps of cocoa? Probably should have sifted.) Mix.



Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and add the oil, coffee, vanilla, and vinegar.



Mix thoroughly, scraping sides, only until combined. Do not overmix. Now gently stir in your chocolate chips.



Butter and flour an 8-inch square (or round) baking pan. I would recommend using a metal pan--they are definitely better for evenly baking cakes. I used a glass pan so that you could better see the results.



Pour your cake batter into the pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. The batter smelled chocolaty and was a beautiful dark brown.



It came out of the oven puffed up and shiny. Perfect!



That puffiness is why I added the vinegar. The recipe called didn't call for eggs or baking powder and it made me nervous. Anyone who has ever made a volcano (or Red Velvet Cake) knows the power of baking soda mixed with vinegar.



After cooling for ten minutes, I turned out the cake onto a plate. One of my red xmas plates that we only use on Thanksgiving or xmas...or when I want a cake to look pretty. Red is also my mother-in-laws favorite color.



I really wanted the flavor of the cake to stand out and not be overwhelmed by frosting or ganache so I whipped up a bit of chocolate icing. Just powdered sugar mixed with a little cocoa and milk. You can make as much or as little as you like. If I end up choosing this eggless cake to make for my mother-in-law I will cover it in chocolate ganache. (I didn't exactly measure the icing ingredients, but I used two heaping 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, about 1/4 cup of cocoa, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and enough milk to make it runny.)



Cool cake completely before icing.



The verdict? This cake was really rich with an incredible deep chocolate taste. It was also surprisingly moist. I thought it would turn out dry and flat, but it was a damn near perfect chocolate cake! I will definitely make it again. Oh, and without eggs in it you can sample the batter all you want. :)




Both monkeys said that the cake was "awesome" and ate two pieces each.



Enjoy!!