Everybody needs an easy chocolate layer cake recipe that you can stir together in minutes. This chocolate cake is made without eggs, and yields three layers of fluffy cake, perfect for making a chocolate birthday cake.

What You Need to Make This Chocolate Layer Cake

To tackle this recipe, you will need two sets of ingredients to make the two components: the eggless chocolate cake and the thick cream cheese frosting. While the list of what you need seems long, you actually don't need anything special, and you likely already have all (or most) of the ingredients in your pantry and fridge!

• For the chocolate cake without eggs:
  • milk, non-dairy beverage (like soy milk), or even water will work in this recipe
  • vinegar, either plain white vinegar or cider vinegar, to react with baking soda to help the cake rise as it bakes
  • all-purpose flour to give the cake structure
  • baking soda to help the cake rise. Do not use baking powder here.
  • cocoa powder, preferably a high quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder like Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder, which is my favourite
  • salt, preferably Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
  • sugar, specifically brown sugar, either light or dark, or even granulated sugar
  • neutral-tasting oil like canola oil, vegetable oil, or a very light-tasting olive oil. Don't use extra virgin olive oil which has too much flavour for this cake
  • vanilla extract to enhance the flavour
• For the cream cheese frosting:
  • butter, preferably unsalted butter since the cream cheese in the recipe has enough salt
  • icing sugar, also called powdered sugar
  • cream cheese, preferably full-fat Philadelphia brand cream cheese. Make sure to buy the cream cheese in block format that is firmer than the whipped kind.
  • vanilla extract to enhance the flavour

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

• For the chocolate cake recipe
  • Milk—This eggless chocolate cake recipe is made with milk, so it's vegetarian, not vegan, but you could replace the cow's milk with your favourite non-dairy beverage, like soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk, if you want a vegan chocolate cake.
  • Vinegar—I usually use regular white vinegar but you could also use apple cider vinegar. You need the acidity of the vinegar for the baking soda to react. Do not omit the vinegar or else replace the milk+vinegar with buttermilk (see next bullet point).
  • Buttermilk—You can replace the combination of milk and vinegar with 1 cup (250 mL) of buttermilk. This will allow you to skip the vinegar but still bring that acidity necessary for the leavening agent to react.
  • Sugar—The brown sugar can be replaced with regular granulated sugar or granulated cane sugar. Either will work great! Do not use turbinado or a coarse sugar, which won't dissolve properly and will have a negative impact on taste and texture.
  • Oil—I always bake with canola oil, but you could replace it with a light olive oil or grapeseed oil.
  • Cocoa powder—I bake with a Dutch-processed cocoa powder. This recipe will likely work with natural (non-Dutch-processed) cocoa powder.
• For the frosting—use the best quality cream cheese you can. I prefer Philadelphia brand full-fat cream cheese. If you want to use a different brand of cream cheese, I can't make a suggestion because I've found the texture and taste of Philadelphia brand cream cheese is unmatched. Other brands I have tried had an impact on taste and texture, so I only recommend Philadelphia.

How to Make It

This chocolate cake couldn't be easier to make because it uses the two-bowl mixing method (also called the muffin mixing method). It's the same method as cake mix, actually, where the wet ingredients are added to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stirred together to combine them.

Step 1—Whisk the wet ingredients together in a large measuring cup, including the sugar (image 1). Sift the dry ingredients in a large bowl (image 2).

Step 2—Pour the wet ingredients over the dry (image 3) and mix the two together to form a smooth chocolate cake batter (image 4). I like to use a Danish dough whisk for this task.

Step 3—Divide the cake batter between three buttered and floured 6-inch cake pans (or dusted with cocoa powder) (image 5). Make sure the cake batter is level in the pans by briefly spinning them on the counter. Band them a couple of times on the counter to release any big bubbles (image 6).

Step 4—Bake the cakes on the middle rack of the oven (image 7), checking them with a cake tester to ensure they are baked through. Set them on a cooling rack to firm up before unmoulding with the help of an offset spatula.

Once the chocolate cake layers have cooled completely, you can prepare the frosting. For the frosting, I use the same technique for thick cream cheese frosting, adding the cream cheese last to the creamed butter and sugar. This way, you use less icing sugar, but can still achieve a thick texture. This frosting is so thick you can use it for decorating and piping.

Step 5—Combine the butter and icing sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (image 10) and whip them together until light and fluffy (image 10).

Step 6—Add blocks of cold cream cheese to the bowl of butter and sugar (image 12) and continue whipping the mixture until smooth and thick (image 13).

Step 7—Level the cake layers using a large serrated knife once completely cool (image 14). This creates a flat surface for more stable stacking. Pipe a quarter of the frosting onto the top of the first layer of cake set on a cake stand (image 15), then smooth it with a mini offset spatula (image 16)

Step 8—repeat the frosting and stacking for all three layers of cake, then smooth the frosting on the exterior to create a thin crumb coat (image 17). Refrigerate until firm before frosting the sides and top with a final layer of frosting (image 18).

Step 9—I like to decorate this cake with chocolate sprinkles so that it is clear from the outside that the cake is chocolate.

Cream Cheese Frosting Alternatives

If you don't like cream cheese frosting, you can replace it with:

• chocolate fudge frosting (made from butter, icing sugar, melted chocolate, cocoa powder, and sour cream)
• Italian meringue buttercream (made from egg whites, soft ball sugar syrup, and butter)
• American buttercream (made from icing sugar, butter, and vanilla)
• peanut butter frosting (made from peanut butter, butter, and icing sugar)
• white chocolate cream cheese frosting (made without icing sugar but still very thick!)

Layer Cake Storage

Given this chocolate birthday cake is made with cream cheese frosting, it's best to store it in the fridge. If you've cut into the cake, just cover the cut edges with pieces of parchment to prevent them from drying out. Place the cake in the fridge until the frosting is firm and cold, then cover the whole thing with aluminum foil. You can store this cake for up to a week, or freeze slices for later.

For a detailed explanation, read about how to store cake.

Serving Suggestions

Serve this chocolate layer cake with ice cream, either vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate ice cream, or cookie ice cream.

If you tried this recipe for the best chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

📖 Recipe

Print

Chocolate Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

This chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting is made from layers of eggless chocolate cake and thick cream cheese frosting for the best chocolate birthday cake.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 503kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• OXO balloon whisk
• Mini offset
• Ateco turntable

Ingredients

Eggless chocolate cake

• 185 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 37 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder
• 7.5 mL baking soda
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 250 mL skim milk (fat free)
• 200 grams light brown sugar
• 60 mL canola oil
• 15 mL white vinegar
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract

Cream cheese frosting

• 218 grams icing sugar
• 173 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 500 grams Philadelphia cream cheese (full fat, regular) cold
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• chocolate sprinkles optional

Metric - US

Instructions

For the cake:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175 °C). Prepare three 6x2-inch (15x5-cm) round cake pans by brushing the bottom and sides of each pan with butter (softened or melted), then line the bottoms with a round of parchment and dust the sides with cocoa powder. Set aside.
• Sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
• Combine the milk, brown sugar, vinegar, canola oil, and vanilla in a separate bowl. Stir, then let it stand for a few minutes so that the sugar dissolves. The milk may curdle and thicken, and that's fine!
• Add the wet ingredients to the sifted dry ingredients and stir until combined.
• Pour the batter in the prepared pans and bake until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean (about 30 minutes but keep an eye on it after 25 minutes).

For the frosting

• The order of these steps is very important! First, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the icing sugar and butter until it is smooth.
• Then, when the butter and sugar are nice and smooth, add in the cream cheese, and beat until you get a creamy, fluffy frosting, for at least 2 to 3 minutes, if not more.

To assemble

• Trim the cakes to level them with a large, serrated bread knife.
• Place the bottom layer on a cake turntable (find it on Amazon) or cake stand, and pipe on about ¼ of the frosting, smoothing it out with an offset spatula. Top with the second layer of cake, frost, and repeat with the third layer. Smooth the last of the frosting on the sides and top of the cake. Decorate with chocolate sprinkles (optional).
• Store in the refrigerator, letting the cake come to room temperature for about an hour before serving.

Notes

• I used Cacao Barry Cocoa Powder - Extra Brute, which is a very dark cocoa powder
• You can also bake this recipe in one 3-inch deep 6-inch cake pan. It will take 60 minutes to bake and make sure to check if the cake is done baking in the middle before taking it out of the oven or else there's a risk that the cake collapses.
• For the chocolate cake recipe
  • Milk—This eggless chocolate cake recipe is made with milk, so it's vegetarian, not vegan, but you could replace the cow's milk with your favourite non-dairy beverage, like soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk, if you want a vegan chocolate cake.
  • Vinegar—I usually use regular white vinegar but you could also use apple cider vinegar. You need the acidity of the vinegar for the baking soda to react. Do not omit the vinegar or else replace the milk+vinegar with buttermilk (see next bullet point).
  • Buttermilk—You can replace the combination of milk and vinegar with 1 cup (250 mL) of buttermilk. This will allow you to skip the vinegar but still bring that acidity necessary for the leavening agent to react.
  • Sugar—The brown sugar can be replaced with regular granulated sugar or granulated cane sugar. Either will work great! Do not use turbinado or a coarse sugar, which won't dissolve properly and will have a negative impact on taste and texture.
  • Oil—I always bake with canola oil, but you could replace it with a light olive oil or grapeseed oil.
  • Cocoa powder—I bake with a Dutch-processed cocoa powder. This recipe will likely work with natural (non-Dutch-processed) cocoa powder.
  • Salt—This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• For the frosting—use the best quality cream cheese you can. I prefer Philadelphia brand full-fat cream cheese. If you want to use a different brand of cream cheese, I can't make a suggestion because I've found the texture and taste of Philadelphia brand cream cheese is unmatched. Other brands I have tried had an impact on taste and texture, so I only recommend Philadelphia. 
• Where I live, Philadelphia cream cheese is sold in 250 gram (0.55 lb) blocks.

Nutrition

Calories: 503kcal | Carbohydrates: 58g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 70mg | Sodium: 350mg | Potassium: 298mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 39g | Vitamin A: 905IU | Vitamin C: 32mg | Calcium: 102mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Chocolate Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting (Without Eggs) appeared first on The Bake School.

I love layer cakes, and to me, this is the perfect cake: alternating layers of moist chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, then topped with a mountain of berries. The cake layers are chocolaty, and the frosting tastes like cheesecake. Together, they are made even better when paired with slightly tart, fresh seasonal berries. I also paired a flavourful cake with cream cheese frosting and a tart element in this moist gingerbread cake recipe topped with white chocolate cream cheese frosting and tart homemade lemon curd. These chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting are another example of combining berries and chocolate cake.

What You Need

The chocolate cake recipe is based on this eggless chocolate cake that is so easy and the batter is mixed in one bowl, just like a cake mix. The cake is made with cocoa powder instead of dark chocolate so that it has a more pronounced, deep chocolate flavour.

• Cocoa powder: Make sure you use Dutch-processed cocoa powder, which has a deeper more pronounced flavour and darker colour than natural cocoa powder, which has a flat taste and a red colour. If you aren't sure about the difference, you can read all about the types of chocolate used in baking.
• Oil: Use a neutral, flavourless oil like canola oil. Olive oil would impart more flavour unless you use a light olive oil.
• Vinegar: You need the vinegar to activate the baking soda. You can use regular white vinegar or even apple cider vinegar.
• Milk: I use cow's milk (sometimes skim or low-fat milk, but use up to 3.25 % fat to create a more moist cake). You can also replace this with non-dairy milk, like oat milk or soy milk with great results!
• Salt: I bake with Diamond Crystal Fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the cake may be too salty.
• Cream cheese: Use full-fat Philadelphia cream cheese if you can. I prefer the taste and texture of this cheese. Use the block form of cream cheese. Do not use whipped or spreadable cream cheese.
• Butter: Use unsalted butter for the frosting preferably because cream cheese is already bringing a lot of salt to the recipe.
• Berries: Use whatever is in season (or on sale). I love to combine strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, but you can also try red currants, blackberries, or even gooseberries. You can keep the stems on many of these for a more whimsical look. In the winter months, you can top this cake with chocolate curls or even slices of orange. And if all else fails, you can always sprinkle liberally with sprinkles!

Please see the recipe card for a full list of ingredients and quantities.

How To Make This Berry Cake

This dark chocolate cake starts with an eggless chocolate cake recipe, which is baked in three pans and layered with thick cream cheese frosting and fresh berries. Here's how to make this recipe:

Step 1—Whisk the wet ingredients together in a large measuring cup, including the sugar (image 1). Sift the dry ingredients in a large bowl (image 2).

Step 2—Pour the wet ingredients over the dry (image 3) and mix the two together to form a smooth chocolate cake batter (image 4). I like to use a Danish dough whisk for this task.

Step 3—Divide the cake batter between three buttered and floured 6-inch cake pans (or dusted with cocoa powder) (image 5). Make sure the cake batter is level in the pans by briefly spinning them on the counter. Band them a couple of times on the counter to release any big bubbles (image 6).

Tip: Take the time to prepare the cake pans before baking, by buttering the pans, lining the bottom with parchment, and dusting the sides with flour. This way, your cakes will slide right out of the pan, without any resistance.

Step 4—Bake the cakes on the middle rack of the oven (image 7), checking them with a cake tester to ensure they are baked through. Set them on a cooling rack to firm up before unmoulding with the help of an offset spatula.

Tip: I baked the cake in three 6-inch cake pans so that it was easier to handle. The three layers bake faster separately than one tall cake that you would split into three equal layers after cooling. 

Step 5—Combine the butter and icing sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (image 10) and whip them together until light and fluffy (image 11).

Step 6—Add blocks of cold cream cheese to the bowl of butter and sugar (image 12) and continue whipping the mixture until smooth and thick (image 13).

Tip: It is very important to start by beating together the softened butter with the icing sugar first, before adding in the cream cheese after. Otherwise, you will end up with a soupy mess. This is the secret to making thick cream cheese frosting that's pipeable even though it has less than half the icing sugar of most recipes.

This cream cheese frosting also tastes great on a poppy seed cardamom cake with cranberries.

Step 7—Level the cake layers using a large serrated knife once completely cool (image 14). This creates a flat surface for more stable stacking. Layer each cake with frosting in between, setting the cake on a cake stand and smoothing it with a mini offset spatula (image 15). Smooth a layer of icing on the outside of the cake as well (image 16). Top the cake with a mound of fresh berries (image 17).

Variation—Another option for a thick cream cheese frosting is this white chocolate cream cheese frosting that is sweetened with melted white chocolate instead of icing sugar!

Storage

Given this berry chocolate cake is made with cream cheese frosting, it's best to store it in the fridge. If you've cut into the cake, just cover the cut edges with pieces of parchment to prevent them from drying out. Place the cake in the fridge until the frosting is firm and cold, then cover the whole thing with aluminum foil. You can store this cake for up to a week, or freeze slices for later.

Take the cake out of the fridge at least 30–60 minutes before serving to give time for the frosting to soften. For a detailed explanation, read about how to store cake.

More Chocolate Recipes

If you love chocolate (who doesn't?), here are a few more chocolate dessert recipes to try:

If you tried this recipe for the best berry chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

📖 Recipe

Print

Berry Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This berry chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting is made from layers of eggless chocolate cake and topped with berries.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 503kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• OXO balloon whisk
• Mini offset
• Ateco turntable

Ingredients

Eggless chocolate cake

• 185 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 7.5 mL baking soda
• 37 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 15 mL white vinegar
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 250 mL skim milk (fat free)
• 60 mL canola oil or your favourite neutral oil
• 200 grams light brown sugar

Cream cheese frosting

• 218 grams icing sugar
• 173 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 500 grams Philadelphia cream cheese (full fat, regular) cold

Toppings (optional)

• 225 grams fresh strawberries
• 225 grams Fresh raspberries
• 225 grams fresh blueberries

Metric - US

Instructions

For the cake:

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Prepare three 6x2-inch (15x5-cm) round cake pans by brushing the bottom and sides with melted butter and dusting it with cocoa, then lining the bottom with a round of parchment. Set aside.
• Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa into a medium bowl and set it aside.
• Combine the milk, vinegar, and vanilla in a separate bowl. Stir, then let it stand for a few minutes so that the milk curdles and thickens.
• Whisk in the oil and brown sugar.
• Add the wet ingredients to the sifted dry ingredients and stir until combined.
• Pour the batter in the prepared pans and bake until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean (about 30 minutes but keep an eye on it after 25 minutes).

For the frosting

• The order of these steps is very important! First, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the icing sugar and butter until it is smooth.
• Then, when the butter and sugar are nice and smooth, add in the cream cheese, and beat until you get a creamy, fluffy frosting, for at least 2 to 3 minutes, if not more.

To assemble

• Trim the cakes to level them with a large, serrated bread knife.
• Place the bottom layer on a cake turntable (find it on Amazon), and smooth on about ¼ of the frosting. Top with the second layer of cake, frost, and repeat with the third layer. Smooth the last of the frosting on the sides and top of the cake.
• Top the cake with a tall mound of the berries.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• I used Cacao Barry Cocoa Powder - Extra Brute, which is a very dark cocoa powder
• Where I live, Philadelphia cream cheese is sold in 250 grams (0.55 lb) blocks. Do not use whipped or spreadable cream cheese.
• I bake with Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt. Add less or the cake may be too salty.
• Vinegar: You need the vinegar to activate the baking soda. You can use regular white vinegar or even apple cider vinegar. Do not omit the vinegar.
• Milk: I use cow's milk (sometimes skim or low-fat milk, but use up to 3.25 % fat to create a more moist cake). You can also replace this with non-dairy milk, like oat milk or soy milk with great results!
• If it's not berry season, you can top this cake with chocolate curls.
• You can also bake this recipe in one 3-inch deep 6-inch cake pan. It will take 60 minutes to bake and make sure to check if the cake is done baking in the middle before taking it out of the oven or else there's a risk that the cake collapses.

Nutrition

Calories: 503kcal | Carbohydrates: 58g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 70mg | Sodium: 350mg | Potassium: 298mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 39g | Vitamin A: 905IU | Vitamin C: 32mg | Calcium: 102mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Berry Chocolate Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting (Eggless) appeared first on The Bake School.

Did you know that commercial cake mixes sold in grocery stores were actually developed to be made without eggs? But home bakers found it odd to make cake without using eggs, so cake mix brands quickly added eggs to the instructions to make home bakers feel more comfortable using cake mix.

This is my go-to base recipe for chocolate birthday cakes. I used it to make this berry chocolate cake, which is a frosted chocolate layer cake topped with fresh berries and this chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, which is decorated with chocolate sprinkles.

What You Need to Make Chocolate Cake Without Eggs

To make a chocolate cake without eggs, you actually don't need anything special, and you likely already have the ingredients in your pantry! Here's what you need:

• milk—whole or 2 % cow's milk, non-dairy beverage (like soy milk), or even water will work in this recipe
• vinegar, either plain white vinegar or cider vinegar, to react with baking soda to help the cake rise as it bakes
• all-purpose flour to give the cake structure
• baking soda to help the cake rise. Do not use baking powder here. Read about baking powder versus baking soda if you don't understand how they differ.
• cocoa powder, preferably a high-quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder like Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder, which is my favourite
• salt, preferably Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount
• sugar, specifically brown sugar, either light or dark, or even granulated sugar will work
• neutral-tasting oil like canola oil, vegetable oil, or a very light-tasting olive oil. Don't use extra virgin olive oil which has too much flavour for this cake
• vanilla extract to enhance the flavour

Substitutions and Variations

• Milk—This eggless chocolate cake recipe is made with milk, so it's vegetarian, not vegan, but you could replace the cow's milk with your favourite non-dairy beverage, like soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk, if you want a vegan chocolate cake.
• Vinegar—I usually use regular white vinegar but you could also use apple cider vinegar. You need the acidity of the vinegar for the baking soda to react. Do not omit the vinegar or else replace the milk+vinegar with buttermilk (see next bullet point).
• Buttermilk—You can replace the combination of milk and vinegar with 1 cup (250 mL) of buttermilk. This will allow you to skip the vinegar but still bring that acidity necessary for the leavening agent to react.
• Sugar—The brown sugar can be replaced with regular granulated sugar or granulated cane sugar. Either will work great! Do not use turbinado or a coarse sugar, which won't dissolve properly and will have a negative impact on taste and texture.
• Oil—I always bake with canola oil, but you could replace it with a light olive oil or grapeseed oil.
• Cocoa powder—I bake with a Dutch-processed cocoa powder. This recipe will likely work with natural (non-Dutch-processed) cocoa powder.

How to Make It

This chocolate cake couldn't be easier to make because it uses the two-bowl mixing method (also called the muffin mixing method). It's the same method as cake mix, actually, where the wet ingredients are added to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stirred together to combine them.

Step 1—Whisk the wet ingredients together in a large measuring cup, including the sugar (image 1). Sift the dry ingredients in a large bowl (image 2).

Step 2—Pour the wet ingredients over the dry (image 3) and mix the two together to form a smooth chocolate cake batter (image 4). I like to use a Danish dough whisk for this task.

Step 3—Divide the cake batter between three buttered and floured 6-inch cake pans (or dusted with cocoa powder) (image 5). Make sure the cake batter is level in the pans by briefly spinning them on the counter. Band them a couple of times on the counter to release any big bubbles (image 6).

Step 4—Bake the cakes on the middle rack of the oven (image 7), checking them with a cake tester to ensure they are baked through. Set them on a cooling rack to firm up before unmoulding with the help of an offset spatula.

Eggless Chocolate Cake Baking FAQs

Frostings For Chocolate Layer Cake

Once you've mastered this recipe for chocolate cake without eggs, you can pair it with:

• chocolate fudge frosting, made with either milk or dark chocolate to make the quintessential chocolate birthday cake
• thick cream cheese frosting with powdered sugar or white chocolate cream cheese frosting without powdered sugar to make a delicious cream cheese chocolate cake (my favourite!)
• a sophisticated Italian meringue buttercream that is less sweet and which you can flavour in so many ways!

Other Eggless Baking Recipes to Try

If you tried this recipe for the eggless chocolate cake (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

📖 Recipe

Print

Eggless Chocolate Cake

Learn how to make the best eggless chocolate cake with this easy recipe. This is my go-to base recipe for chocolate birthday cakes and makes three 6-inch chocolate cake layers.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Calories 365kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 6-inch cake pan (2-inch deep)
• OXO balloon whisk
• Cake tester
• Cooling rack

Ingredients

For the cake

• 250 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)
• 225 grams light brown sugar
• 15 mL white vinegar
• 50 mL canola oil
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 185 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 7.5 mL baking soda
• 37 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder

For the ganache

• 170 grams dark chocolate (70 % cocoa content)
• 125 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175 °C). Prepare three 6x2-inch (15x5 cm) round cake pans by brushing the bottom and sides with melted butter and dusting it with cocoa, then lining the bottom with a round of parchment. Set aside.
• Stir together the milk, vinegar, oil, vanilla, and salt in a large cup measurer and let it stand for a few minutes.
• Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa into a large bowl.
• Pour the milk mixture over the dry ingredients and stir (or whisk) them to create a fairly smooth batter, just like cake mix.
• Pour the batter in the prepared pans and bake them on the middle oven rack until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean (about 25–30 minutes).
• Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes before unmolding them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

• Milk—This eggless chocolate cake recipe is made with milk, so it's vegetarian, not vegan, but you could replace the cow's milk with your favourite non-dairy beverage, like soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk, if you want a vegan chocolate cake.
• Vinegar—I usually use regular white vinegar but you could also use apple cider vinegar. You need the acidity of the vinegar for the baking soda to react. Do not omit the vinegar or else replace the milk+vinegar with buttermilk (see next bullet point)
• Buttermilk—You can replace the combination of milk and vinegar with 1 cup (250 mL) of buttermilk. This will allow you to skip the vinegar but still bring that acidity necessary for the leavening agent to react.
• Sugar—The brown sugar can be replaced with regular granulated sugar or granulated cane sugar. Either will work great! Do not use turbinado or a coarse sugar, which won't dissolve properly and will have a negative impact on taste and texture.
• Oil—I always bake with canola oil, but you could replace it with a light olive oil or grapeseed oil.
• Cocoa powder—I bake with a Dutch-processed cocoa powder. This recipe will likely work with natural (non-Dutch-processed) cocoa powder.
• Salt—This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!

Nutrition

Calories: 365kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Cholesterol: 18mg | Sodium: 188mg | Potassium: 279mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 233IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 79mg | Iron: 4mg

The post Eggless Chocolate Cake appeared first on The Bake School.

How to make a pumpkin bread recipe without eggs

A typical pumpkin loaf cake recipe would have eggs in it, but it turns out that canned pumpkin makes a great egg replacer, as do other fruit purées, like mashed banana in this eggless banana bread. So you can actually easily make eggless pumpkin bread without changing much of anything and without having to resort to egg replacers, like chia eggs or flax eggs, among others. That's great news if you are looking for dairy-free or vegan fall desserts or recipes made with canned pumpkin.

You may notice holes in your cake when you slice into it: these might form because the batter is thick and so gaps in the batter will occur as you fill the loaf pan. If you over-mix the batter, this could also cause larger holes in your cake, so please be sure to mix just enough to form a cohesive, even batter, but not so much that you develop too much gluten. You'll also want to make sure that you take the time to whisk together the dry ingredients so that the baking soda disperses evenly throughout the batter.

Canned pumpkin versus homemade pumpkin purée

Of course, if you feel like using your own homemade pumpkin purée, instead of canned pumpkin, you absolutely can in this recipe. However, I do have one recommendation for you: strain your homemade pumpkin purée through a few layers of cheesecloth in order to remove some of the water because sometimes homemade pumpkin purée may have an excess of water in it, and that can lead to a wet or gummy cake that might take a very long time to dry out properly. Feel free to keep that pumpkin water for other recipes, like for making smoothies, or you can also boil it down to a very thick syrup to remove the water so that you can add back to the pumpkin purée. This way, nothing is wasted! I use the technique of boiling down the liquid with defrosted bananas to avoid letting the banana juice go to waste. If you go this route, make sure to save the seeds so that you can make a batch of toasted pumpkin seeds to snack on later.

Because this pumpkin loaf cake is vegan, the recipe calls for canola oil (or your favourite neutral-tasting oil), which means the batter for this pumpkin bread can be mixed in a bowl with a whisk or a wooden spoon, instead of having to resort to the creaming mixing method. No mixer required here, which means this recipe is very easy to make because all you do is mix the ingredients together. Of course, if you prefer to bake with butter, a common baking substitution would be to replace the canola oil with the same amount of melted butter (which works out to 58 grams of melted butter). That would work just fine too!

This is a healthier pumpkin bread because it's made with less sugar than most loaf cakes of this size, which would have at least 200 grams (1 cup) of sugar. Reducing the sugar by 50 grams (¼ cup) allows us to make this recipe a little healthier, without impacting the texture of the bread or how moist it is. This is another example to show that baking with less sugar is possible, just like with these blueberry bran muffins and these hearty apple blackberry muffins.

This eggless pumpkin bread makes a flavourful loaf that makes great toast in the morning. I also like to slice the whole loaf and then freeze it. Then you can pull out a slice when you want it and toast it in your toaster. If you want to use maple syrup instead of the sugar, try this pumpkin bread with maple syrup.

If you like to explore more recipes for baking with pumpkin, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can celebrate this star ingredient!

📖 Recipe

Print

Eggless Pumpkin Bread

Here's a recipe for how to make healthier pumpkin bread. It's eggless, dairy-free, and vegan, and is also made with less sugar than other recipes!

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 273kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Loaf pan
• OXO balloon whisk
• GIR spatula

Ingredients

• 375 mL pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée
• 60 mL canola oil or melted butter
• 150 grams granulated sugar or brown sugar or a mixture of both
• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 5 mL baking soda
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL ground cinnamon
• 2.5 mL ground allspice
• 2.5 mL ground nutmeg

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Grease and flour a 9x5-inch (23x12.5 cm) or 8.5x4.5-inch (21.5x11.5 cm) loaf cake pan, then line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment.
• In a large bowl, combine the canned pumpkin with the sugar. Whisk in the oil.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the baking soda, salt, and spices.
• Fold the dry ingredients in the bowl with the wet batter and stir everything together to incorporate it and form a thick batter. Don't overmix.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 60–65 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean.
• Let cool 10 minutes, then unmold onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!

Nutrition

Calories: 273kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 417mg | Potassium: 130mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 7295IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Healthier pumpkin bread (eggless, dairy-free, vegan, less sugar) appeared first on The Bake School.

What You Need To Make Carrot Cake Without Eggs

With the success of the eggless chocolate cake, eggless banana bread, and healthier pumpkin bread (also without eggs), it seemed reasonable to imagine that making a carrot cake without eggs would be possible.

In this cake recipe, I would have probably used 3 large eggs, which is roughly 150 grams of eggs. To replace them, I used the following baking substitution: 190 mL of full-fat sour cream. The sour cream provides both moisture and fat, like an egg would have. It may not have the same emulsifying properties as the egg, but this worked well in this recipe.

Leavening agents in cakes

Using an acidic ingredient like sour cream in a cake batter means that you need to use two chemical leaveners, baking powder and baking soda. The baking soda is there to help neutralize some of that acidity so that the baking powder can do its job of helping cakes rise when the cake is in the oven, and not prematurely.

Two-bowl Cake Mixing Method

Cake recipes that are made with softened butter are mixed using the creaming method, where the sugar and butter are mixed together for a long time. This incorporates air into the batter, leading to softer, fluffier cakes that are less dense.

For this cake, I decided to use canola oil instead of butter because I wanted to have a cake that was tender, even if it has to be refrigerated. Remember oil is liquid at room temperature and still fluid even in the refrigerator, whereas butter is solid. This leads to a more tender mouthfeel, even when the cake is cold.

Using oil means you can use a different mixing method to make the batter: the two-bowl method, just like for muffins. Much to my surprise, the layers of cake baked flat, without having to use cake strips. You could level the tops if you want very flat, perfectly even layers to stack, but as you can see from the photos, without trimming the tops, I still had a fairly flat finish.

Thick Cream Cheese Frosting With Less Icing Sugar

The best frosting for carrot cake is cream cheese frosting. It's what people expect and sometimes the frosting is the main reason people eat carrot cake or order it in restaurants.

The secret to making a thick cream cheese frosting with less icing sugar is to first cream the butter with the icing sugar before adding the cream cheese. This way the icing sugar is coated with fat, thereby delaying or preventing it from drawing the water out of the cream cheese.

This mixing method leads to a more stable cream cheese frosting that you can make with a lot less icing sugar than most! I've used it for other layer cakes, like this chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and this cranberry cardamom cake, and even these moist apple cupcakes!

Tip—Want to make a frosting without icing sugar? Try this white chocolate cream cheese frosting, which tastes great with desserts with warm spices like this spice cake or this moist gingerbread cake!

Here are some of my favourite tools and baking pans to make layer cake recipes like this one:

• Kitchen-Aid Artisan mixer (Amazon)
• Oxo whisk (Amazon)
• Wilton 6-inch cake pans (Amazon)
• Cooling rack (Amazon)
• Ateco mini offset spatula (Amazon)
• Cake tester (Amazon)
• Ateco turntable (Amazon)

Carrot Cake Baking FAQs

If you tried this recipe for the best eggless carrot cake (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

📖 Recipe

Print

Eggless Carrot Cake

This eggless carrot cake is layered with thick cream cheese frosting to make the best carrot cake without any fuss.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 50 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 8 slices

Calories 687kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 6-inch cake pan (2-inch deep)
• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• Mini offset
• Ateco turntable

Ingredients

Eggless carrot cake

• 220 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 10 mL baking powder
• 2.5 mL ground cinnamon
• 2.5 mL ground ginger
• 2.5 mL ground nutmeg
• 2.5 mL baking soda
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 125 mL canola oil
• 250 grams light brown sugar
• 188 mL sour cream (14% fat)
• 15 mL orange zest
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 375 mL finely grated carrots

Cream cheese frosting

• 95 grams icing sugar
• 115 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 250 grams Philadelphia cream cheese (full fat, regular) cold
• 5 mL vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 15 mL orange zest optional

Metric - US

Instructions

To make the eggless carrot cake layers

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Butter, flour, and line with parchment three 6x2-inch (15x5-cm) round cake pans (Wilton on Amazon)
• Sift together (or whisk) the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Set aside
• In a separate large bowl, whisk together the canola oil, brown sugar, sour cream, orange zest, and vanilla until very well blended.
• Add the flour mixture to the bowl with the wet ingredients and fold everything together until the flour has almost completely disappeared.
• Fold in the carrots.
• Divide the mixture between the three pans, banging the pans to release any air pockets. Smooth the surfaces of the cakes with an offset spatula and bake them until they are done: a cake tester inserted in the centre of the cakes will come out clean, and the edges will have pulled away from the sides of the pan. This takes 25 to 30 minutes.
• Let the cakes cool 10 minutes before unmoulding to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the cream cheese frosting

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the icing sugar and the butter until it is creamy and light.
• Add the cream cheese, the vanilla bean paste, and the orange zest (if using) and beat the frosting until it is smooth.
• Peel off the parchment from the cake layers and place the first layer on a cake stand. Top with a couple spoonfuls of frosting (~150 grams) and smooth it out. Stack on the second cake layer and another 150 grams of frosting, then top with the final layer. Use a bench scraper or an offset spatula to smooth the sides if desired.
• Chill for 30 minutes to set the frosting before serving.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• If you aren't sure how to check if your cakes are done baking, you can use a cake tester or even a digital thermometer to double check that the internal temperature is around 100 ºC (212 ºF).

Nutrition

Calories: 687kcal | Carbohydrates: 72g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 43g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 78mg | Sodium: 314mg | Potassium: 404mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 46g | Vitamin A: 7406IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 169mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Eggless Carrot Cake appeared first on The Bake School.

This recipe comes from my mother's recipe box and my grandmother used to make it a lot because we have a relative who was allergic to eggs. And this recipe is also perfect if you want to do some vegan baking or need a dairy-free recipe.

Baking without eggs: mashed banana as an egg replacer

It turns out, you can bake banana bread without eggs. Mashed banana is actually a lesser known egg replacer, so in banana bread, the eggs are actually optional. Mashed banana adds moisture to baked goods, but also water (producing steam as the cake bakes, which is a leavening agent, as are eggs).

Mashed bananas also help bind batters, which helps replace the emulsifying properties of eggs in cake batters. Bananas can also act as a partial fat substitute, meaning that you can replace a little fat with them, but not all of it. Since eggs are also a partial fat substitute (specifically the yolks), you can see how bananas as an egg replacer actually makes perfect sense!

This is, by far, the easiest banana bread recipe you can make and it follows the muffin mixing method, also known as the two-bowl method:

1. in one bowl, you whisk together all the dry ingredients really well (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon). 
2. in a separate bowl, you whisk together all the wet ingredients (mashed bananas, sugar, and oil).
3. pour the dry ingredients over the wet, and fold them in to form a thick batter

Ways to modify this vegan banana bread recipe

This banana bread recipe leaves a lot of room for tweaking and modifying it to suit your tastes. Here are some ideas of what you can change:

• for a richer banana bread:
  • use melted butter for more flavour
  • double the fat because most banana breads with this amount of flour have up to ½ cup of fat, so you can make this recipe with:
    • 125 mL (½ cup) of canola oil OR
    • 60 mL (¼ cup) of canola oil PLUS 58 grams (¼ cup) of melted butter
• for a sweeter banana bread:
  • increase the sugar to 200 grams (1 cup)
• for a more flavourful banana bread:
  • change the sugar:
    • use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar, replacing a portion or all of the granulated sugar with either one
  • add spices: 
    • add 1–2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and/or
    • add ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg and/or
    • add 2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • add vanilla extract: I'd add 1 to 2 teaspoons
• if you like nuts and such in your banana bread:
  • add up to 250 mL (1 cup) chopped nuts (I like walnuts)
  • add up to 125 mL (½ cup) shredded coconut (unsweetened)
  • add up to 250 mL (1 cup) dark chocolate chips
  • add 125 mL (½ cup) of Sultana raisins or golden raisins

Remember that banana bread improves in flavour and matures as it rests. Be sure to let the cake cool completely, then wrap it and let it sit at room temperature overnight before slicing and serving. This gives time for the flavours to develop. Trust me: it's worth the wait.

If you are planning to use frozen bananas, make sure to place them in a bowl and defrost overnight in the fridge before peeling. Peel the defrosted bananas and place in a fine mesh sieve fitted over a bowl to collect the banana juice. Either discard that liquid OR boil it down to a very thick syrup (makes just a couple tablespoons of banana concentrate). Add this syrup to the mashed bananas and proceed with the recipe.

If you need help making banana bread and some troubleshooting suggestions, head over to my best banana bread post where you'll find tips and tricks. And if you notice holes in your cake, they might form because the batter is thick and so gaps in the batter will occur as you fill the loaf pan, but if you overmix the batter, this could also cause larger holes in your cake, so please be sure to mix just enough to form a cohesive, even batter, but not so much that you develop too much gluten.

📖 Recipe

Print

Eggless Banana Bread

Here's a recipe for how to make eggless banana bread so that you can keep making banana bread even if you don't have eggs

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 8

Calories 297kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Loaf pan
• OXO balloon whisk
• GIR spatula

Ingredients

• 330 mL mashed banana up to 375 mL (1½ cups), from 3 to 4 very ripe bananas
• 60 mL canola oil or melted butter
• 150 grams granulated sugar or brown sugar or a mixture of both
• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 5 mL baking soda
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL ground cinnamon optional

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Butter and flour a 1-pound loaf pan, either a 9x5-inch (23x12.5x7.5 cm) loaf pan (like this Nordic Ware pan on Amazon) or for a taller loaf, use an 8.5x4.5-inch (21.5x11.5x7 cm) loaf pan (like this Oxo pan on Amazon). Line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas with the sugar. Whisk in the oil.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the baking soda and the salt.
• Fold the dry ingredients in the bowl with the wet batter and stir everything together to incorporate it and form a thick batter. Don't overmix.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 60–65 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean.
• Let cool 10 minutes, then unmold onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Use the largest bananas you can find for this recipe: I used almost a pound of bananas and after peeling, I was left with roughly 375 grams of fruit, which works out to 330–375 mL (between 1⅓ and 1½ cups) of mashed banana. 
• Make sure the bananas are very ripe (black even).
• If using frozen bananas, make sure to defrost before peeling. Place in a fine mesh sieve fitted over a bowl to strain the banana juice. Either discard the liquid OR boil it down to a very thick syrup (makes just a couple tablespoons of banana concentrate). Add this syrup to the mashed bananas and proceed with the recipe.

Nutrition

Calories: 297kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 415mg | Potassium: 212mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 25g | Vitamin A: 32IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Eggless banana bread (dairy-free, vegan, less sugar) appeared first on The Bake School.