Old fashioned chocolate cake (eggless)

Since I got interested in cake decorating, I have been on a lookout for good cake recipes. I want to have a good collection of eggless and regular cake recipes, so that I do not spend too much time trying out things. I need that precious time for decorating while handling my 2 year old.

Baking is definitely a science, which I have realized after baking so many cakes. It is not easy to tweak recipes, because everything has a role to play in giving the cake its texture. The type of fat used, number of eggs, leavening agents all have to be balanced for the perfect cake. Try to omit and replace something and you might end up with a dry, dense or an off texture cake. After all my browsing I have understood that baking soda is completely alkaline and baking powder has acidic elements too. So when you are dealing with acidic elements like fruits you need to add baking soda to balance the Ph. Well with so many things going on when you want to bake without eggs, it is a bigger challenge.

I tried lot of egg less chocolate cake recipes. I was not very satisfied with the moisture of the cake inspite of the amount of fat that went into each recipe. Finally I came across this recipe on food.com. God bless the lady for posting that recipe. It was the solution to my egg less chocolate cake problem. The cake is perfect just as I wanted it to taste and feel. Does not feel eggless at all. It goes as follows:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 cups hot water
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 with rack in the center.
• Spray two 8" round cake pans with nonstick spray.
• Whisk dry cake ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
• Combine water, oil, vinegar, instant coffee granules, and vanilla in a large measuring cup.
• Add to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined- a few lumps are ok.
• Divide batter between the two pans (about 3 cups each), then bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (35- 40 min).
• Cool cakes for 15 minutes on a rack, then invert them onto the rack.
• Leave upside down until completely cooled before frosting them.

Recipe Source: Old fashioned Chocolate Cake by PanNan

The original recipe also gives instructions for an icing, as I was just trying out cakes I did not try that. But it sounds wonderful to go with the cake.