Vanilla Cake– egg free and yet delicious

A delicious vanilla cake is the cornerstone of every baker’s repertoire. It’s light and airy, and combines beautifully with a myriad frostings to make a delectable treat.

But an eggless version. A nightmare!

Eggs add that lofty volume. Eggs add a wonderful golden colour to cakes.

Things, one takes for granted, until one leaves out the eggs.

Baking soda and vinegar do a great job of providing that airy lift to a cake….but most eggless cake recipes are tweaked for chocolate cakes. Where the cocoa powder masks the fact that the cake is not the glorious, golden beauty that you envisaged.

After a lot of trial and error, I’ve discovered 2 great eggless vanilla cake recipes that I make very often. One is egg free, but uses sour yoghurt and baking soda. The other is vegan.

I’m sharing the first recipe here today. You can make it vegan by subbing out the yoghurt for  kefir or soy yoghurt.

Eggless Vanilla Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Plain flour 
1 cup Plain yoghurt 
3/4 cup Granulated sugar 
1/2 tsp Baking soda 
1 1/4 tsp Baking powder 
1/2 cup Neutral vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Line a 7″ round tin with baking parchment and spray it with oil.

Sieve the flour and set aside.

Whisk together the sugar and yoghurt until sugar completely dissolves.

Add baking powder and baking soda to the mixture and whisk in well. Leave aside for 5 minutes until bubbles appear.

Now add in vanilla extract and the oil and whisk together.

Add the flour little at a time and fold into the wet ingredients. Fold together until no lumps remain.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes at 180 degrees. If the cake is browning too fast, reduce the temperature to 160 deg C and bake it for another 20-25 minutes, or until done.

The cake is done when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 10 mins, then invert it into a cooling rack. Serve warm or freeze wrapped in cling film, until required, if you are decorating the cake.

This recipe makes a wonderful, soft cake that is firm enough to decorate with buttercream or fondant.

Do give it a shot and share your results with me.