Chocolate Cake without Eggs or Butter
You would never know that this cake has no eggs or even butter in it. It is moist and delicious all at the same time. it is also very easy to make. Literally a one-pot dessert.
Equipment
- 9 - inch cake pan
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup natural cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Liquid ingredients:
- 1 cup cold water
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (prefarabley freshly squeezed)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons softened butter( you can leave it out
- 1 cup powdered (confectioner) sugar
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, sifted
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoon milk (more if you decide not to use butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Grease a good cake pan well, and line it with a parchment circle to fit the bottom of the pan to prevent the cake from sticking.
- Add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and baking soda, and a pinch salt to a bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to incorporate ingredients and remove lumps if any.
- In a large measuring jug, add water, olive oil, lemon juice, and vanilla and mix well
- Add liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients in the food processor bowl.
- Process to get a smooth batter. It does not take long, don't over mix.
- Tranfer the batter to the prepared pan, bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool competely on a rack.
- Meanwhile, add the frosting ingredients; such as, softened butter, powdered sugar, cocoa, and vanilla to a large, deeper bowl to prevent powdered sugar flying around.
- Use a hand held mixer to combine the ingredients, and start adding milk in ½ teapoon portions at a time until you get the desired frosting consistency.
- If you dont want to use butter, increase the amount of milk. frosting takes very little liquid, so be careful. Otherwise it will turn to a glaze, which can be used but not as frosting.
Notes
Cocoa powder
Cocoa powder is used in a lot of chocolate baked goods. It is always confusing when some recipes call for Dutch processed and the others just say cocoa powder. Here I am going to demystify the difference between the two.
During production of Dutch processed cocoa powder cocoa beans are washed in alkaline solution of potassium bicarbonate to neutralize its acidity making it unfit to react with baking soda which is also alkaline. For proper result, it has to be paired with baking powder.
On the other hand, natural cocoa powder is a product of cocoa beans that is acidic, strong, and has a concentrated taste of chocolate. Because it is acidic, it is used with baking soda.
In baking isles of supermarkets, the cocoa powder sold is usually natural. If the recipe simply says cocoa powder, it is natural cocoa powder and should be paired with baking soda. In most recipes this difference is not explained and results in failed recipes.