Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake Recipe (No Butter)

Learn how to make moist and soft eggless chocolate cake using this easy chocolate cake recipe using no butter. 

Sometimes readers leave me notes and tips on recipes they've tried from this site. Sometimes they leave recipes. An anonymous reader left a recipe on the Eggless Chocolate Yogurt Cake post (which they liked better than my recipe) and I recognized I had seen it somewhere. I couldn't find an exact match but the moist chocolate cake from Raks Kitchen seemed close to this recipe.

I decided to give it a shot when I had TH's cousins and aunts visiting for lunch. They don't eat egg and prefer to not eat it in the "hidden" form as cakes and cookies either.

There are a few ways you can bake a cake eggless and still make it taste great. Using banana is one way (check out the Chocolate Banana Pound Cake recipe) or yogurt (like in the Basic Vanilla Sponge Cake or the Chocolate Yogurt Cake). Flax seed meal is another option but one option I hadn't tried yet was vinegar.

I was doubtful for a long time what type of vinegar we can use for baking cakes. Asked a few fellow bloggers and finally figured out that white vinegar or apple cider vinegar works best. I usually have a bottle of white vinegar in the kitchen for making certain Indo-Chinese Recipes and pickles, so used the same for this cake too.

I baked it into a loaf cake but you can bake it in a cake/brownie pan or even into cupcakes. While we are on the topic, let me tell you how AMAZING this Chicago Metallic Loaf Pan is. Must buy if you bake bread and like loaf-shaped cakes.

Eggless Chocolate Sponge Loaf Cake

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Makes 8-10 slices
Adapted from anon's recipe comment

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of sugar
3 tbsp of cocoa powder
1/4 cup of neutral oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 cup of cold milk (use water or any nut milk for a vegan chocolate cake)
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tbsp of white vineger / apple cider vinegar / lemon juice
A pinch of salt

How to Make Moist Eggless Chocolate Cake:

0. Pre-heat oven to 180C / 350F.

1. Mix the sugar with the milk, oil, vanilla and vinegar. Take care to use cold milk otherwise the vinegar will curdle it. If you are unsure how it will go, just use water. I am assured that gives good results too.

2. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Sift this dry mixture into the wet ingredients in three batches, folding it in after each addition. Don't overmix at this stage, just gently fold in until you don't see any trace of the batter. A few small lumps in the batter are fine.

3. Lightly grease with oil or butter whatever pan you are using. Pour the batter in and bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 mins. Depending on the pan used, the baking time will vary. Mine took just over 40 mins.

Let the cake cool and transfer to a cooling rack or cutting board. Store the cooled cake in an airtight container for up to 2 days outside or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Goes really well with cookies and cream ice-cream. Trust me, I've tried it ;)

Notes

- you can add some chocolate chips to the top of the cake if you like, or as soon as it's out of the oven, add some chocolate chips over the cake and spread it across the top as it melts
- as mentioned in recipe, omit milk and use water for a vegan version
- the cake will have slightly rubbery / hard texture especially around the sides when it's warm. Let it cool and sit for a while and it turns out perfect. For that reason, this cake is best made the day before you plan to serve it
UPDATE: I was asked by a lot of you about the deep colour of my chocolate doughnut cakes and the reason is the Valrhona cocoa powder I used. It's amazing, gives a lovely purple hue and great depth in recipes it's used in. You can use any cocoa powder you have in mind, but if you are wondering which cocoa powder to buy, highly recommend  Valrhona cocoa powder. (Not a paid advertising)