March 24th, 2009
Basic Eggless Cake
The d day finally arrived exactly 2 weeks ago and I’m happy to announce the arrival of our son. To say life is hectic is an understatement and I’m getting used to the schedules of my newborn with oodles of help from my mother. Motherhood has its own unique share of joys, happiness, anxiety, trials and tribulations and I’m experiencing every bit of it. Life has suddenly changed forever.
This cake was one of the few things I made just a few days before the birth of our son. It is a very versatile cake. You could serve it plain, sprinkle it with icing sugar, bake it in cups to make cupcakes or bake it in a round tin to make wedges or square tin to make squares, slice it in the centre and sandwich with your favourite jams, the possibilities are endless. It can go from being a simple everyday cake to a star attraction on the table with a little bit of imagination. The reasons for eggless baking maybe many, health, allergies, religious or any other, this is quite a useful recipe to know.
I must also mention that divinetaste and my recipe for komola kheer have been featured on Kurma’s blog. Kurma das, known as the vegetarian guru of Australia is a prolific cookery author and a great chef. I feel truly honoured by his gesture.
Basic Eggless Cake Recipe
My favourite way to make this cake is to slice it in equal halves, sandwich with apricot jam* and dredge with icing sugar on top.
Ingredients:
250 gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda/ sodium bicarbonate
1 tin/400gm sweetened condensed milk
100 gm butter melted
175 ml water/milk
2 tsp good quality vanilla essenceMethod:
Grease and line the bottom of an 8” square or 9” round cake tin with greaseproof paper/baking parchment/butter paper. In a mixing bowl, assemble the flour, baking powder and baking soda, mix with a spoon and sieve once to make the mixture uniform. Preheat the oven at about 100 to 120 degrees centigrade. Put in the condensed milk, melted butter, vanilla essence and water into the mixing bowl containing the dry ingredients. Beat with an electric hand mixer, whisk or spoon until the mixture comes together and there are no lumps. This shouldn’t take more than a minute with an electric hand mixer/beater. Be careful not to over beat the mixture as this could result into a hard cake. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for an hour at 150 degree centigrade.
The cake is done when a knife or cake tester comes out clean when inserted in the centre of the cake. Invert the cake on a cooling rack, cool and use as required.* If using jam to sandwich the cake, beat the jam in a bowl with a spoon to soften it and make it spreadable.
P.S. Since this is an eggless cake, you might find the batter on the looser side, but it comes out alright, soft and spongy out of the oven.
March 24th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Congratulations Anushruti!Hope you enjoy this truly special phase.
As always, the photographs and the recipe are lovely!
March 25th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Oh boy! What a joy!
Congrats on the new arrival. The cake looks delicious…
March 26th, 2009 at 10:11 am
One doubt….what does the pic of the flower indicate? Just curious…..
March 28th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Hi Anu,
Congratulations to all of you! Can’t wait to see the baby! Take care.
Supriya, Sharad, Yash and Shreya
March 30th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Hi Anu,
Simply mouth watering. Nice clips. A question - what does the white flower represent & which flower is it?
Cheers,
Mihir
April 1st, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Hi Mihir,
This is a dahlia flower, that I shot in Srilanka. I love to include flower and nature pictures in my posts. Here, if you read the post and put the cursor on the picture you will understand that it is related to the birth of your nephew.
Beena: I hope this quells your curiosity too.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:55 am
This is a great recipe, we use it quite regularly, and make chocolate and fruit cake using this same basic recipe. Like you said the possibilities are endless….
Congratulations on the birth of your son. Motherhood is wonderful, enjoy every moment of it, the grow up very fast.
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:00 am
oh and use self raising flour, and try it with some lemonade instead of water or milk. This will give a lighter sponge.
All the best
April 4th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Kiran: Thanks. I’m really looking forward to this phase of my life and ofcourse feeding him with all the delectable things that I can possibly make.
I’m not a fan of self raising flour. Its not easily available here in India and also other parts of the world. I prefer making my own self-raising flour, if a recipe calls for it.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Hi Anu..
First of all congratulations on your baby boy! must be a bundle of joy!! nice post.. and a great way to include ur baby in it ( new life). Also aunty told me that kurma das has mentioned you in his blog..thats quite something! Wishing you all the very best in all your future endeavours… keep cooking!
Lots of love Soumya
November 30th, 2009 at 1:08 am
hi anu..
this cake looks amazing.. i actually tried making it in a bundt and square pan… the center did not rise.
i baked this on 350 degrees farhenheit for 40 minutes.
the center was sort of mushy, it didn’t separate as it would when using eggs.
please help.
thanks.
nisha
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Nisha: This cake works beautifully well in a bundt pan. http://www.purplefoodie.com/2009/10/dulce-de-leche-cake-with-vanilla-bean.html
Try baking it at 300 degree F or 150 degree C for a few minutes longer. At times the oven plays mischief!
January 12th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Anu,
The cake looks great. I have been looking for eggless recipes for ages and do hope this is it. Just a query. offlate I have started baking cakes wth oil totally doing away with the butter. do you think that is possible in this recipe?
Veena
January 13th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Veena: I have not tried substituting this recipe with oil. But there are other recipes of cakes on divinetaste with oil. In my opinion, butter would taste best here, oil would make the cake more dense and alter the texture of the sponge. Let me know if you do decide to use oil instead of butter in this recipe.
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Made this for afternoon tea and it was very well received. I’ll have to bake it again for photos since half of it was gone before I could find my camera. Thank you!
March 25th, 2010 at 2:52 am
[...] of cuisines. The eggless almond cake featured today [adapted from Anushruti's wonderful blog, Divine Taste - Feed Your Body, Mind and Soul] has a hint of the delicate almond flavour that make you reach for more. I guiltily admit that I [...]
June 22nd, 2010 at 10:37 pm
your cakes look great.i want to know what type of oven do you use.i am new in baking and want to buy one what would you suggest.oven or otg?
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Anuradha: Thanks. I’m happy you enjoy my cakes. I use a traditional convection oven or what you call the oven toaster grill in India. Set your oven to “bake” mode when baking in an OTG. I have the largest capacity Bajaj model and my new acquisition is my Siemens convection oven http://www.siemens.com/entry/in/en/.
July 3rd, 2010 at 6:35 pm
I have to tell you this basic eggless cake recipe plays a very important role for me in making my loved ones happy. This year i celebrated each of my near n dear ones birthdays with variations of this basic recipe and modifying it to make cakes of different flavors and frostings. I must thank you for this.
Being a vegetarian and finding the perfect eggless cake recipe was not easy, and I was so glad when i found this. I’ve tried almost all the cakes featured on your site. The chocolate cake too is a bag hit with my friends.
I also have a query : Is it possible to make the super-spongy sponge cake we get in bakeries without use of eggs? If this same recipe can me modified to make it a sponge cake can you give me some suggestions?
Thanks, Gauri.
July 5th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Gauri: Cakes always make people feel special and homemade ones are a great way to celebrate any occasion. This one is a true winner with my folks too and I’m happy you like it.
As far as your query for sponge cake goes, have you tried the vanilla cake featured here? I have given the recipe and trained folks selling eggless cakes in a bakery in Bangalore with a similar recipe, omitting the yogurt and increasing the milk.
July 6th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
I’ve tried the vanilla cake featured, but will try it with the variation soon. I’ve tried making this same basic eggless cake with more milk to make the batter on the looser side so it comes more spongy, but I’ve noticed the cake turned soft, but not like sponge.
August 7th, 2010 at 9:19 am
Just tried your recipe just for the heck of trying an egg-less cake and boy did it taste as good as the regular cakes:). I served it by sprinkling icing sugar on top. Moist and fluffy and pretty looking cake, and yum tasting..thanks for sharing the recipe
August 7th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Christina: Thanks for reporting your success. This will encourage many to try eggless cakes.
August 8th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Hi,
For some time now I have been following your recipes here. I am a vegetarian and am always looking for egg-less baking. I have a few egg-less cake recipes and they come out well. I tried your Basic Egg-less Cake Recipe and it came out perfect. Soft and spongy. everyone who ate it could not believe it was egg-less. Thank you for the wonderful recipe. Next I am going to try the Mango cheese cake. Unfortunately the mango season is over now but I have some pulp in the freezer of our home grown organic mangoes and use that to make the cheese cake.
Congratulations on being mentioned by Kurma Dasa. I just love his recipes and have one of his books.
August 13th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Sandhya: I’m so glad you and your family like these cakes. Eggless cakes can taste as good if not better than egg-based cakes. I’m so happy when someone reports their success like you have here.
Your organic mangoes sound great. Using the pulp is an option when mangoes are not in season. Do let me know how it turned out.