Birthday cake without eggs with chocolate butter cream

As a developer of professional recipes focused on cooking, I am more aware of the cost of eggs than most people. Try to make a custard tart that requires eight egg yolks, then test them three times more. It’s two dozen eggs for a recipe. Ouch.

Many current pastries and desserts do not need eggs: shortbread cookies, most bread, almost all fruit pies, even my ice cream recipe. But what about these recipes that really rest on eggs?

By thinking of transforming a cooking into something without egg, I first thought of a heavy cooking with eggs like a custard pie. But I realized that these treats celebrate the eggs. What about cooking that needs eggs for the structure but not really for flavor? Enter the birthday cake. Even people who will rarely cook will prepare a birthday cake for someone they love.

My father’s birthday is only two days before mine, so we often celebrated together when I was a child. We usually asked for a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and mom still delivered. She whipped a yellow cake mixture and frosted it with a chocolate frosting bathtub. Now, I do it from scratch: a rich yellow butter cake with a lot of egg yolks, a generous vanilla glug and a secret pinch of almond extract. My homemade version Raye this nostalgic itching. Unfortunately, this homemade yellow cake generally involves several eggs. Let’s change that.

Eggs make a lot of bakery products, especially cakes. Proteins provide a cake structure and help it increase. The natural lecithin of egg yolks emulsifies the ingredients. For the yellow cake, the egg yolks also add a deep yellow color. Eggs also contribute to the volume of a cake. Thus, an egg -free cake needs more of all the other ingredients to make the same amount of sponge. As we were going without eggs, I decided to go with plants. For what? Because eggs are the hardest ingredient to substitute in vegan cooking. If we spend all this effort to eliminate eggs, let’s go.

Without eggs for the structure, you cannot add so many good things – fat – as you would in a birthday cake based on normal butter. In addition to resuming fat, I exchanged in the Arrowroot flour (also known as starch arrowroot) for part of the flour, which Joe Yonan uses in the vanilla cake of his new book “Mastering the art of plant based on kitchen”. Arrowroot gives the most soft result, but the cornstarch operates on a pinch.

To compensate for the absence of my favorite cooking ingredient – butter – I caught light avocado oil for humidity and a box of coconut milk for its exhilarating, tropical flavor and additional fat. Many recipes for plant cakes require a combination of vinegar and baking soda, but this combination lends to these cakes a dark crust and an unattractive gray crumb. In addition, why use baking soda and vinegar when baking powder does the same? The baking powder is, essentially, baking soda plus a powder acid which, when combined, active and helps a cake to increase.

Get the right color turned out to be the easy part. Instead of egg yolks to give this cake its golden color, the molded turmeric allows a sunny shade without artificial food coloring. If you don’t have a turmeric, leave it aside and you have a nice white cake.

As always, I implore you to weigh your ingredients for the best results.

Yellow cake based on eggs without eggs

Yield: A 8 -inch two -layer cake

Time: About 1 hour, more cooling time

Ingredients:

420 G (3 1/4 cups) versatile flour

40 G (1/3 cup minus 1/2 teaspoon) scourge/starch flour

1 chemical tablespoon

1/4 Teaspea of ​​ground cleucks

400 G (2 cups) Sugar

1 Fine sea salt teaspoon

1 13.5 ounces (400 ml) of full -fledged coconut milk (approximately 1 2/3 cups)

150 G (3/4 cup) avocado oil, or any vegetable oil with a neutral taste, no longer to grease the pan

60 G (1/4 cup) of water

4 Vanilla extract teaspoons

1/2 teaspoon of almond extract

Instructions:

1 and 1 Heat The oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit with a grid in the central position.

2 Fat Two 8 -inch round metal cake pots and line the bottom with parchment paper.

3 and 3 Whip Together, the flour, the arrow powder, the baking powder and the turmeric in a bowl for 30 seconds.

4 Whip Together, sugar, salt, coconut milk, avocado oil, water, vanilla extract and almond extract in a large bowl to mix until they are combined.

5 Add Dry ingredients with a damp mixture and whisk until they are combined but not quite smooth. Avoid topping.

6. Divide The dough in the prepared pans.

7 Cook At 350 degrees, Fahrenheit until it is well high, slightly golden on the top, and the cake comes back when it is slightly pressed in the center, about 33-38 minutes. Avoid opening the oven door before 33 minutes – This cake collapses more easily than cakes made with eggs.

8 To leave The cakes cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then cover them with a plate or a baking sheet to cool completely. Cooling of cakes in the covered pan helps keep moisture and prevents the top, bottom and sides from becoming crunchy.

9. Run A offbeat spatula or a butter knife around the edge of the cake mold, then reverse the cakes on a cutting board and remove the parchment paper.

You can make the cake one day in advance, wrap it in a plastic film and adjust it at room temperature until you are ready to frost the cake.

Chocolate buttercream

Ingredients:

250 G (about 1 1/2 cup) of chopped chocolate (approximately 55% to 70% cocoa)

150 G (1 1/2 cup) Powder sugar

40 G (about 2 tablespoons) Light corn syrup

1 tablespoon of boiling water

1 Vanilla extract teaspoon

1/2 Fine sea salt teaspoon

227 G (1 cup) Propagation of plant butter (such as earthly balance), margarine or ordinary butter (for an unleashed cake) at room temperature

Instructions:

1 and 1 Melt Chocolate. I usually do it in the microwave. Put the chopped chocolate in a heat resistant bowl and cook gusts of 30 seconds at full power, stirring between each ZAP, for about 2 minutes in total. Once most of them but not the chocolate has melted, stirring until the remaining pieces merge with the residual heat. You can also put the chocolate in a large bowl with a fire test and adjust this bowl to a saucepan of simmering water. Stir constantly until chocolate has just melted. Make sure no water enters chocolate. Reserve to cool for at least 5 minutes while you mix the rest of the frosting.

2 Add Powdered sugar, corn syrup, boiling water, vanilla and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine and dissolve the powdered sugar.

3 and 3 Add The butter in the bowl of a drummer on a base (or use a hand mixer in a large bowl) and beat until it is soft and light, about 2 minutes.

4 Add The mixture of powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy, an additional 3 minutes.

5 Turn The mixer to the lowest speed and water melted chocolate until mixed. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl and drummer and incorporate all the streaks of butter or chocolate.

Assembly

Glued sequins or coconut (optional)

1 and 1 Place One of the cakes on the right on the service tray or on a cardboard cake on a plate or a cake support.

2 Priest About 1/2 glazing cup on top and spread it on the edge but not on the sides. I prefer to use a offset spatula, but use what you have.

3 and 3 Return The other cake so that the lower flat side goes upwards and put it on top of the first layer.

4 Put About 1 cup of frosting on the cake and spread it to cover the upper layer, pushing all excess frosting on the edge of the cake.

5 Propagé The frosting remaining on the sides of the cake.

6. Decorate With occasional blows and vortices.

7 If The frosting becomes too firm (which can occur with plants of plants based on plants), carefully blow a hot hair dryer on the cake to soften the frosting.

8 High With rainbow sequins or grilled grated coconut-and candles, of course.

Martin Sorge is an independent writer.

Originally published: April 15, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.