This eggless chocolate walnut cake is made with wholewheat flour, cocoa powder and lots and lots of love for a very special person!
It was the morning of Sarah’s 4th birthday. Due to some unrest in the city the evening before, we received a message from the school at 10:30 pm that all schools had been shut down for the day.
This would have been the first time Sarah was celebrating her birthday in a school so I was a bit sad. I knew Sarah would be too when she found out in the morning that there was no school and her new dress for school and the bag full of GEMS to distribute will stay as is.
I woke up much before anyone else was up and had an urge to bake her a cake. More than anything to wake up everyone with the sweet aroma of freshly baked cake. Chocolate being her favourite flavor, it was easy to decide on an eggless chocolate cake.
The original recipe comes from food blogger Shivesh Bhatia. One of his eggless cake tricks is now my go-to trick in all eggless baking.
Yogurt and Baking Soda
Before beginning any work on the cake, mix yogurt and baking soda and keep aside. Yogurt and baking soda react and foam up very nicely. This incorporates lots of air into the batter and makes the cakes fluffy and moist.
Regular homemade curd (dahi) works very well with this but just make sure to use only the thick part and not the water that separates from the curd.
Eggless Chocolate Walnut Cake
Ingredients (1cup = 240ml; 1tbsp = 15ml; 1tsp = 5ml)
- ½ cup dahi
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 6 tbsp powdered sugar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ tsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp milk
- ¼ cup walnuts
Instructions
- Line a 6-inch cake pan with oil and parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 200℃.
- In a small bowl combine yogurt and baking soda. Let this sit aside for 5 minutes or until it foams up.
- Meanwhile, in another bowl sift together whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Give this a good mix and set it aside.
- In a big mixing bowl add in oil and powdered sugar. Whisk this with a hand mix till the mixture becomes slightly pale. Add in the yogurt and baking soda mixture and whisk again.
- To the same bowl, add vanilla and slightly warm milk and combine all wet ingredients.
- Once combined, add in dry ingredients and ½ of chopped walnut. Bring the cake batter together using a spatula.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and top it off with some walnuts.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Notes
Easy cakes at home
For home-baking and everyday celebrations, I prefer making cakes without any frosting. While Sarah’s birthday was not an everyday celebration, I did have a big Chocolate Strawberry cake with buttercream frosting for the evening party at the farm. The morning cake was for a small, intimate celebration.
If chocolate is not your favourite cake flavor, check out these seasonal cakes:
Do share your
As I am ovenless, I made this in a 6 quart slow cooker (crock pot) and it came out wonderfully (despite the slight oiliness to its touch – likely due to my desperate substitution of almond oil in place of olive oil). For anyone’s reference, I used a parchment sheet in the crock, and in total I used 60g whole wheat flour, 50g coconut sugar, 100g Fage 0% milkfat Greek yogurt, 17g unsweet dutch cocoa powder, 45g unsweet cashew milk, 1/2 tsp coconut extract, and the recommended 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder, with all ingredients mixed in the recommended order and timing. It took 1h 30min (uninterrupted) on High with the lid locked (using built-in clamps) and two towels hammocked underneath the lid to catch the moisture. Without a pan to shape it, it simply comes out like a pancake shaped brownie. Thank you for this recipe! Next time I’ll reduce the oil and use date sugar or puree for fiber.
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Val!
so happy to know it came out well in slow cooker as well. I might also give that a try!