Recipe for 'deliciously moist' chocolate cake uses no eggs, milk or butter (2024)

FAQs

What happens to a cake with not enough eggs? ›

If there isn't enough egg, your batter or dough may not be able to hold its structure or could end up overly dry or dense.

One common ingredient swap that is known to help make cakes remarkably moist is using milk instead of water. Try switching out any water in your recipe for full-fat milk or buttermilk for a moist, decadent texture. Another ingredient that can enhance the moisture of your cake is mayonnaise.

Provides Texture:

Milk will also affect the texture of a cake. Like we talked about above, the amount that's added will affect the type of texture. For example: Adding too much milk, could make a cake super dense, but not adding enough will leave it too dry and it'll come out crumbly.

APPLESAUCE

About ¼ cup of applesauce can work as an egg replacement in baking for dense baked goods like brownies or cookies. While you can use applesauce in sweets like cakes and cupcakes, you may need to add an extra ½ teaspoon of baking powder to your dry ingredients to create a light and airy final product.

Using a 1/4 cup of milk or yogurt in place of eggs is perfect for baked goods where moisture is key, such as cakes or muffins. (Vegans can use plant-based milks or yogurt in its place.

Adding extra wet ingredients like yoghurt or sour cream can really help your cake retain moisture, especially if you're cooking with chocolate which is notorious for drying out a bake.

Applesauce adds a pleasant depth and tartness along with a depth of flavour to your white or yellow cakes. If you want to experience those wonderful childhood memories of caramel apples, use applesauce in your caramel cake recipes.

Sour cream is one of the fattiest dairy products; the extra fat content (for example, adding sour cream to a cake instead of milk) will make the cake moister and richer, says Wilk. "Fat, in any form (butter, lard, cream, etc.) shortens gluten strands, which essentially leads to the most tender baked goods," she adds.

Why do you put hot water in a chocolate cake? ›

You may have noticed that some chocolate cake recipes utilize hot water or even hot coffee. When hot liquid is combined with the cocoa powder, it helps to dissolve and 'bloom' the cocoa to bring out as much flavor with as few cocoa lumps as possible.

The hot water is added at the very end because the flour is effectively coated with fat (the oil and eggs), thereby reducing the amount of gluten that can form (flour + liquid). The reason the water is hot is because hot liquid (water/coffee) helps "bloom" cocoa powder, creating a deeper, more rich chocolate flavour.

Martina says, “Late in the mixing stage, eggs will incorporate better if you lightly beat them before adding to the batter. The finished cake may be slightly shorter than expected, but its flavor and tenderness shouldn't be affected.” For egg-leavened cakes, the eggs are crucial.

Substitute the water.

My go to is Buttermilk when I swap water in cake mixes. But I have used evaporated milk, which is canned milk if I can't get fresh buttermilk.

One option is to use 2 eggs and add an extra 1/4 cup of liquid, such as milk or water, to make up for the missing egg. Another option is to use 2 eggs and add in 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce or mashed banana to add moisture and binding properties.

Using too few eggs will make your desserts dense, but using too many will make them rubbery. The explanation for this lies in the fact that eggs are made up of protein. As Fine Cooking explains, when the protein in eggs combines with the protein in flour, they produce the overall structure of the baked good.

Eggs: 3 whole eggs provide structure, moisture, and richness. 2 extra egg whites keep the cake light and airy. I don't recommend using 4 whole eggs; stick to the 3 egg & 2 egg white combination. Here are recipes using leftover egg yolks.

What Eggs Do in Baking Recipes. Eggs play an important role in everything from cakes and cookies to meringues and pastry cream — they create structure and stability within a batter, they help thicken and emulsify sauces and custards, they add moisture to cakes and other baked goods, and can even act as glue or glaze.