Eggless Cake

[EllenC]

I have twin nieces who are allergic to eggs. We keep epi pens handy incase they have any contact with these tasty little items.

This recipe is delicious. We want to be able to make it in a multitude of flavors. We want to try orange next. That means getting rid of the chocolate and putting in orange. We can't use any liquor. Please help. I am happy to bake repeatedly and I have a ready group of guinea pigs at my office. I will also be happy to post results and pictures.

2 c sugar

3 c flour

2 t baking soda

1 t salt

6 T cocoa

1/2 c oil

2 T vinegar

2 t vanilla

2 c warm water

Mix wet, add dry (well, that's the "easy way" my friend and I do it). Bake 350 for 30-35min.

How do I change this to make a vanilla or yellow cake? Also how much orange would you add?

Thank you,

Ellen

[CaliPoutine]

How about using butter instead of oil, creaming it with the sugar. Adding 6 more tbls of flour( or maybe not) and the zest of 1 orange. Maybe sub half OJ for the water. The best orange flavor comes from zest. You might also use a little bit of orange extract. You might need some baking powder too, although I'm not really up on all the science behind the powder/soda issue.

[K8memphis]

I'm not up on the science of the baking powder thing either and it's not affected my baking. Ignorance is baking bliss I guess.

I would rub the orange zest with the sugar for a while like P Herme suggests for lemon zest to bring out the oil to it's fragrant best. And I'd use orange juice concentrate in there somewhere.

And to me, more important than the baking powder issue is that cocoa replacement. Cocoa does something to a formula. I use a big tablespoon of cocoa in one concoction type recipe I made once. I left it out the next time I made it. The cake sucked compared to how it comes out with subbing the big tablespoon of flour for cocoa.

So to me, if you're gonna get scientific, that cocoa replacement is more important. Especially without any eggs in there.

And I saw some interesting egg free cake mixes at the store yesterday. They were just under five bucks and I can't remember the brand name. But that is certainly an idea for you. They had white and yellow and chocolate of course. I'll make note of the brand name next time I go. But check your grocery store like by the protein drinks and diebetic foodstuff.

[bushey]

What about adding a little orange blossom water in addition to the zest? It might add another layer of flavor will certainly add to the aroma.

[EllenC]

Thank you all for the comments. I knew there is a chemical thing with the cocoa powder and I am hoping somebody here can help with that.

I really like the idea of rubbing the zest with the sugar, and the orange blossom water. Thank you. I will start experimenting tonight.

Ellen

[JeanneCake]

And I saw some interesting egg free cake mixes at the store yesterday. They were just under five bucks and I can't remember the brand name. But that is certainly an idea for you. They had white and yellow and chocolate of course. I'll make note of the brand name next time I go. But check your grocery store like by the protein drinks and diebetic foodstuff.

←

It was/is CherryBrook Kitchens. I had a wedding client on Sunday with a child guest allergic to eggs so we made a batch of yellow cupcakes from that mix. I'm embarrassed to admit that I messed up (not used to this sort of thing) and had to buy another box because I read the water measurement as oil and the oil as water. I dont know what I was expecting, but the brown sugar smell was very nice as it baked. One box made 12 regular sized cupcakes so I didn't get to sample any to know how it compares to cake in general. They also make an eggless frosting mix, as well as brownies.

[helenjp]

I've been thinking about non-allergenic cakes recently, and liked banana the best of the egg-substitute tricks I tried - give the banana a really good thrashing in the beater to aerate it. Use banana to substitute not just the eggs, but any other liquid in the recipe (apart from oil or honey, of course). 1 lage banana would be the equivalent of 2 eggs, but if possible, use a minimum of 1 banana per cake recipe.

I also added a tiny bit of baking soda (about two pinches per cup of flour).

What about adding ground almonds as a partial substitute for the cocoa?

Almonds would help enrich the flavor a little, as oil cakes seem to need plenty of flavor: the banana not only produced a good texture, the family voting panel immediately voted it first choice for flavor.

I haven't tried it yet, because banana and oil create a nice moist texture, but suspect that syrup or honey instead of sugar may be another way to counteract the hard, dry texture eggless cakes can get. Another "fix" for eggless cakes where you don't want the banana flavor is to keep them thin (or slice them), be very generous with filling (drizzle with something nice before layering with filling, too), and leave them to sit for a while before serving.

Orange almond cake (banana substitute) is extra tasty with orange syrup poured over the hot cake. If I could buy polenta or cornmeal (or heck, even some farina or semolina), I'd try a banana-raised middle eastern syrup cake version for you, because cornmeal has so much flavor that you will never miss the egg flavor. A little almond flour helps these too - google "almond polenta syrup cake" if you want an eggy recipe to tweak!

[cakewalk]

What about adding a little orange blossom water in addition to the zest? It might add another layer of flavor will certainly add to the aroma.

←

Or a few drops of orange oil. That stuff really makes a cake zing.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

And I saw some interesting egg free cake mixes at the store yesterday. They were just under five bucks and I can't remember the brand name. But that is certainly an idea for you. They had white and yellow and chocolate of course. I'll make note of the brand name next time I go. But check your grocery store like by the protein drinks and diebetic foodstuff.

←

It was/is CherryBrook Kitchens. I had a wedding client on Sunday with a child guest allergic to eggs so we made a batch of yellow cupcakes from that mix. I'm embarrassed to admit that I messed up (not used to this sort of thing) and had to buy another box because I read the water measurement as oil and the oil as water. I dont know what I was expecting, but the brown sugar smell was very nice as it baked. One box made 12 regular sized cupcakes so I didn't get to sample any to know how it compares to cake in general. They also make an eggless frosting mix, as well as brownies.

←

Something I liked to do with the Cherrybrook Kitchens yellow cake mix was to replace the water the recipe calls for with orange soda. The carbonation lightens the texture a bit, and the orange flavor makes it taste like a creamscicle.

The original posted recipe is a Wacky Cake recipe. I've seen a few non-chocolate iterations of it. There is a chocolate cake recipe in one of the Mollie Katzen cookbooks that is similar... it just calls for more cocoa.

Here's a link to a recipe that explains substitutions to change the flavor of Wacky Cakes.

http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/featured_recipe5.php

Edited October 18, 2007 by MomOfLittleFoodies (log)

[gfron1]

Just a note that this topic has been added to the Pastry and Baking Index section on Special Diets.

[greenbean]

Here is a cake I made a few weeks ago as one of the layers for my brother-in-laws wedding (he's vegan).

It worked well and baked very nicely. For an orange flavor, I would replace some of the soy milk with orange juice or maybe just add some zest and orange extract along with the vanilla. If your nieces don't have any issues with dairy, I'm sure regular milk will work as well.

1 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer (like Ener-G Egg Replacer)

1 cup soy milk

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons white or apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup unbleached flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9" cake pan. Whisk together the egg replacer, soy milk, syrup, oil, vinegar, and vanilla until completely combined. In a separate bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add in liquid ingredients stirring to combine. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake approximately 25 to 30 minutes or until done.

I had to take this layer, plus 4 others and a grooms cake from Atlanta up to Buffalo. The cake traveled well and they enjoyed it very much.

Good luck.

[Rebecca263]

I've substituted nut flours for cocoa with fine results. I also tried red bean flour once, it was terrible. Cocoa has a high fat content, I'm guessing that is the issue at hand when making substitutions.

[EllenC]

These are great suggestions. Thank you.

I am trying to avoid using nuts because, while the twins can eat them, their mother can't. I probably should have mentioned that. Sorry.

Keep the ideas coming.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

Something to note with Ener-G egg replacer... it works best when you're only trying to replace up to 2 eggs that are used as a leavener. It doesn't work well at all for chewy brownies.

[jaynesb]

There's also an interesting website you might check out

Post Punk Kitchen index of vegan desserts. They've got some cookbooks out also. (Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Vegan with a Vengance. The cupcakes look really good but I have not yet tried making them. (Kitchen is under construction right now.)

The New York Times did a piece on them a few months ago.

jayne

[gfjane]

When I first started baking without gluten, I spent my time looking at sites of people who'd already worked through it, lol. For eggs, try searching for vegan or vegetarian sites. I think someone else already posted some. There are many and some have great rating systems, so you have an idea of whether it's worth it. I bet you'd find another cake recipe that would work without you having to figure out how to make a regular recipe work.

I did a quick search and found a similar cake to this one and in the comments, someone said they took the cocoa out and made it a spice cake with no problems. If it were me, I'd cut the recipe in 1/3 or 1/4 (which ever is easier) and try it. The worst that happens is that you learned it doesn't work. Same site had a yellow cake recipe, too.

You may know all of this already, but I thought I'd throw it out in case it helps in some way - either you or another person who needs the information later. Finding recipes that don't use eggs to begin with is a great help, but you can also use things to replace the function of the eggs. People have already mentioned Ener-G egg replacer - it does have limits. To replace eggs, it really helps to know what function the egg has in the recipe.

Eggs can add moisture, leavening, binding - or all of these at once. If there is already leavening, adding more baking soda or powder can ruin the taste, though this does work sometimes.

If only one egg is used, it's easier to work with the recipe to change it. Chances are it's a binder, though it may be moisture, but most likely a binder. Tofu, ground flaxseed in hot water, gelatine, and fruit puree all work great. The more eggs in a recipe, the harder it is to determine what it does and how to replace it. Lots of sites give replacement amounts, but generally you can use these for one egg (an egg is 1/4 cup in volume):

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed plus 3 tablespoons warm water

1 tablespoon unflavored, unsweetened gelatin plus 3 tablespoons warm water

1/4 cup ground soft tofu.

3 tablespoons pureed fruit (applesauce, bananas, pears, sweet potatoes, etc.)

I also found this site awhile back when I was looking up info on replacing eggs. It's just tips people wrote in, but there was a lot of info in it.

[chickie]

cocoa is going to add an acid, which will activate the baking soda. So ideally you would want to replace the baking sode with a double acting baking powder AND add an acid (vinegar, lemon juice)

[EllenC]

Okay, here's what I did. I used fresh orange juice instead of water and mixed 1 tablespoon orange zest in with the sugar before stirring in all the other dry ingredients. I also added 1 teaspoon orange blossom water. I made a half batch according to the original recipe I posted with no cocoa powder. These were AWESOME. I got about 14 cupcakes out of it. Frosted with cream cheese frosting (I used orange juice for the liquid) they were great. They were also goood as muffins. I will be making these a lot. Most particularly for the girls' birthday next week.

Thank you everyone for your help.

Ellen