August 14th, 2009
Eggless Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Butter Frosting
In life we are not always fortunate to be surrounded by our loved ones. I’m going to be separated with two people who are closest to me for nearly a year. My sister is on her way to the university of Pennsylvania for a course in non-profit leadership and my brother in law is off to INSEAD in Fontainebleau, near Paris for masters in business management. Although we don’t live in the same city, we would meet up at least 4 to 5 times in a year. And although I’m extremely happy for them (congratulations dearest folks) it is still taking me time to digest that I wont be seeing them for quite some time (I’m not yet brave enough to be traveling between countries with an infant son in tow).
It was quite wonderful when we got together for my son’s naming ceremony at my parent’s place, with my baby boy being the star attraction. When it was time for my sister and brother in law to leave, I wanted to say good bye and wish them luck with a cake. If I were in Mumbai I would have made my sister’s favourite Pineapple cream cake. Since I didn’t have the ingredients on hand I decided to make a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting.
This cake has fascinated me for long. A Chocolate frosting on a Chocolate cake is always great but when a Chocolate frosting is used on a Vanilla cake the flavours simply stand out! The characters of both the vanilla and the chocolate show their individual colours. I’m a great fan of anything “vanilla” and I was elated when this cake came out beautiful, as I had expected.
This Vanilla cake is quite basic and can be served in a myriad ways. It has a perfect crumb, considering its eggless. I discovered that adding yogurt to the batter makes the cake tasty, light and spongy. Other than the cocoa butter frosting given below, it can be topped with Chocolate Ganache, Fresh Cream, various fruits and the like.
Lately, I have been wondering what kind of an eater my little fellow is going to be and about his likes and dislikes. It might sound strange to a few but I have already started planning his birthday party menus. And I eagerly hope that Harivansh is going to enjoy and relish this cake as much as we do at home.
Eggless Vanilla Cake with Cocoa Butter Frosting Recipe
The Vanilla cake can be used as a base recipe and topped with different kinds of frostings like Chocolate Ganache, Butter Cream and Fresh Cream frostings and Fresh fruits like pineapple, peach, strawberry, etc.
Ingredients:
For the Vanilla cake:
225 gm (8 oz/ about 1 ½ cup + 2 tbsp) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda/ sodium bicarbonate
1 tin/400gm sweetened condensed milk
110 gm/1 stick butter
200 ml (7 fl oz/ ¾ cup) milk
4 tbsp yogurt
2 tsp good quality vanilla extractFor the Chocolate Butter Frosting*:
80 ml (1/3 cup) cocoa
80 ml (1/3 cup) butter, softened
500 ml (2 cups) powdered sugar
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 to 2 tbsp hot waterWhite chocolate chips for decoration (optional)
Method:
To make the Cake:
Grease and line the bottom of a 9” round cake tin with greaseproof paper/baking parchment/butter paper. Preheat the oven at 150 degrees centigrade.
In a mixing bowl, assemble the flour, baking powder and baking soda, mix with a spoon and sieve once to make the mixture uniform. In a bowl assemble the butter and the condensed milk and beat (with a hand mixer or a wire whisk) until the mixture is combined, about a couple of minutes. Mix in the yogurt and beat again. Pour in the milk and beat until the mixture is well mixed.
Stir in the flour mixture and mix with a spoon, whisk or the legs of the hand mixer before starting to beat again. This will prevent the flour from getting dispersed outside the mixing bowl. Beat until the mixture is uniform and smooth and there are no lumps. This shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes with an electric hand mixer/beater. Be careful not to over beat as this tends to make the batter stiff which might result into a harder textured cake. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for an hour at 150 degree centigrade.To make the Cocoa Butter Frosting:
With the help of a hand mixer or a wire whisk, mix the cocoa and butter. Stir in the powdered sugar, vanilla and hot water. Beat until you get a smooth frosting which can be spread easily over the cake.Place the cake on a cooling rack and spread the icing, smoothening the top and sides with a palette knife. You can run a fork across the cake to make criss cross patterns.
* Cocoa Butter Frosting adapted from Betty Crocker Baking Classics
August 15th, 2009 at 3:07 am
Frosting looks divine. And what amazing pics you have!!
August 15th, 2009 at 4:25 am
I too am a fan of vanilla and that cake sounds perfectly delicious!
August 15th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Hi Anu,
Looks yum…..! Lovely presentation.
What can we do to make the cake slightly juicy? Is it possible with this cake? I guess the shelf life might not be longer if it is moist, but still thought of checking with you.
August 15th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Uma Aunty: Thanks. I’m happy you liked it. For a moist cake, the cake can be wet with a sugar syrup (boil 1 cup water with 4 tbsp sugar and cool) or any fruit juice. For instance if its a Pineapple cake, I like to moisten the cake with Pineapple juice.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Anu, the cake looks wonderful, especially the frosting and the deco. Moreover an eggless cake! Wow, good one!
August 16th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Hey Anu the cake looks absolutely sinful! I loved that its an eggless cake and the frosting looks divine, gorgeous clicks, by the way which camera are you using? nikon?
August 16th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
What a beauty? the cake and your blog.
August 16th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
The does seem divide Anu…wow! I am so used to making the Betty Crocker’s instant cake mix in the US, that I never tried making at home from scratch. Now u have inspired me to do so and I cant wait to try. And lovely pics!
August 17th, 2009 at 10:11 am
My dear! You are such a good photographer! Such pleasure to watch the pictures:). Cake looks so yummy and well browned. I must keep these pics away from my daughter or I will be in trouble - haven’t made one for ages now!
August 17th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
An award is waiting for u at my blog…Congrats..
U have nice and lovely blog…Cake looks scrumptious…
August 17th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Parita: I use a Canon 40D and planning to add the 5D mark II to my collection.
Sireesha: That’s indeed very sweet of you. Thank you very much.
August 18th, 2009 at 3:06 am
The cake looks gorgeous, so light and fluffy ! Awesome pictures:-)
August 18th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Hey Anushruti, thanks for stopping by at my blog.
I am so happy to discover yours in return. Also happy that I finally found a recipe for eggless cake that looks soooo good. I have always been scared to try eggless stuff. But sometime, you’ve just got to make them for the friends who are off eggs. I totally agree with you when you say yoghurt make the texture of the cake better.
When I read cocoa butter icing i got excited because I haven’t really seen a recipe for icing that uses cocoa butter. Turns out it is cocoa powder + regular butter. Different people, different perspectives, I guess.:)
I absolutely love your photos. You’ve decorated this cake so well!
August 19th, 2009 at 12:44 am
This looks amazing! Love the white choc chips all over.
August 20th, 2009 at 3:19 am
Beautiful and captivating pictures. The cake looks pretty. Good luck and best wishes to your sister and BIL.
August 21st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I wish I’d seen this post a few days ago, when I was looking for eggless recipes to make for cousins!! I usually dont bake anything eggless, but this is a very handy recipe to have, I’m sure!!
I was shocked when I read the cocoa butter frosting, and got super excited and was just about to add it to my ‘to make’ list, when I saw that it was just cocoa and butter! Lol!
I love how you decorated the cake! White chocolate is so under-appreciated!!
August 21st, 2009 at 10:04 pm
thepurplefoodie: The title is quite misleading, I agree! The thought did cross my mind….”cocoa butter” also has a different connotation.
Avanika: I changed the title from “cocoa butter” to chocolate butter so that it doesnt confuse or mislead anymore.
August 22nd, 2009 at 4:51 pm
That was a great treat, to say the least.
You can give us a welcome treat with a Pineapple cake…
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Simi: Yes sure looking forward to it!
August 24th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Drooling over the cake!
August 30th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Come to think of it, this would be great made with cocoa butter. Just that I can’t justify the purchase of an entire can of cocoa butter for a single cake. And worse still, it goes rancid pretty quickly. Yea, I’m back drooling over this very cake.
September 17th, 2009 at 1:05 am
j’aime vraiment ce genre de gateau et les photos sont térribles !
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
What a lovely cake!
September 24th, 2009 at 8:46 am
I have just ventured into egg-less baking.My mom is famous for her cakes but all are with egg. This was something new that we tried, but i think using icing sugar instead of Castor sugar for the icing would be better, as the Castor/powdered sugar does not come as smooth as icing sugar does.The cake turned out well though.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Hi Anushruti,
I’m Gauri, daughter of Sadhana Rao from the boutique. I really have to tell you… you have inspired me a lot. I love your website with all the recipes and posts and pics too. I just love cooking since i was a kid and since mom told me about your website I’ve been hooked. I tried out all the cake recipes, the butterscotch pudding and also the spinach curry. I tried a pineapple wet cake with modifications of your vanilla cake recipe with natural pineapples on my birthday. Thanks a lot. I will keep trying the new recipes.
October 6th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Gauri: Hi..thank you so much. Your message has put a smile on my face. Look forward to your feedback and comments. Happy cooking and baking!
October 13th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Hi Anushruthi,
I just happened to browse your website while looking for eggless cake recipe.I really appreciate your confident way of putting the things up in your website.
I prepared eggless vanilla cake using your recipe.It came out very well with superb texture and taste.Our family enjoyed and relished the cake on my Bday (Oct 13th).I am so happy and wanted to thank you for wonderfull receipes.My son who is 3 1/2 years old also loved the cake and decorated with lots of gems and choclate.I am big fan of your website.
October 24th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
You have a beautiful blog, and gorgeous pictures. never easy to bake without eggs, but you are doing a phenomenal job…WOW!! This is a beautiful cake!
October 24th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Deeba: Thanks. I never use eggs so I have no choice but to bake everything without them.
October 30th, 2009 at 3:49 am
Thanks for the wonderful recipe. I made this cake for my husband’s b’day and he loved it. He asked me to make it again after a week and he is really picky abt what he eats, so i was so happy when he liked it.
just couple of suggestions for people who r going to try this cake;
1. everything works great for the proportions given above, but 9″ round cake pan is not big enough. My cake really fluffed up a lot and the batter was in the oven. so, second time I made it, I used 2 pans instead of one and it worked out great,
2. while making the cocoa butter, make sure you mix it for a long time (atleast 10 to 15 min) to get the smooth texture like in the bakery. first time I made, i just mixed it enuf to combine the ingredients and the frosting came out really grainy.
October 30th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Pallu: I’m happy you and your husband liked this cake. But I wonder what went wrong with your 9″ cake pan? I always use a 9″ round pan with 2″ height for this recipe and the cake fills and fits the pan beautifully. I have never felt the need to use 2 pans and so have many others who have made this recipe, so I’m wondering as to why you had to use 2 pans? Is it something to do with the height of your pan I wonder!
Also, it has been my experience that If you use confectioner’s sugar also known as icing sugar, you dont have to beat for so long to obtain a smooth texture.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Hi Anu,
I was hunting for a eggless cupcake and I landed in your website. Can I use the same ratio for cupcakes. Do I have to add anything different. My son’s birthday is coming and he wants to take cupcakes to preschool. As we don’t eat eggs, I am in dilemma. This recipe is perfect. What about the timings?
Thanks
November 18th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Raji: Yes you could use this recipe to make cupcakes. The batter would make around 12 cupcakes. You could bake them for 25 to 30 minutes depending on your oven and see if they are done.
I have other eggless recipes for cupcakes here as well.
November 25th, 2009 at 5:52 am
I do not see this under eggless baking. Please add.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Hi Anushruti,
I made this cake yesterday and it came out very well. Thanks for the recipe. Keep them coming!
December 13th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
oh..this is lovely..the stuff dreams are made of
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:11 pm
wow.wat ………..a…………….lovely…….cake!!!!
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:14 pm
wow i made it today