Eggless cake with choco chips and nuts

Eggless Chocolate Cake with Nuts

If you wish to bake an egg-less cake for the festive season to share  with  your Vegetarian friends and family, then this Eggless chocolate Cake with  Nuts is a great option to pick. It is based on the recipe from Aparna’s blog (you can check the original recipe for basic egg-less cake here ), and I have baked various versions of this cake by adding ingredients like choco-chips, Tutti frooti, prunes, cranberries, strawberries, nuts, raisins, chocolate, cocoa powder etc., and each time the cake turned out to be delicious and it got rave reviews from everyone who tasted it. Here, I have added cocoa powder , choco chips and dry fruit/nuts to the basic recipe and the resulting cake, as usual, was fabulous. The citrus juice and zest add a zing to the sweetness provided by condensed milk, while the cocoa gives the cake a deep chocolatey flavour, the choco chips and nuts add some oomph, bite and crunch to the moist cake.

As mentioned above, this recipe calls for the zest of Orange and Lemon. Always wash the fruits well before ‘grating’ the skin. To get the zest of orange (or lemon) gently scrape the fruit using a micro plane or a grater, and take off just the rind of orange or lemon, taking care to avoid any white pith, as it  will impart bitter flavour. I always follow the great tip shared by my friend Chef Dinesh Keswani to zest the citrus fruits. Here is what Dinesh, who has worked in some of the best hotels and Michelin Star restaurants in UK and US, has to say about the best way to zest “Use a very sharp grater, a micro plane if possible. Most of the volatile oil is lost in the traditional grater.Use a baking paper to collect your zest. If using a traditional grater, tap the grated zest with the back of your knife so as to release and activate the oils from orange zest.”

Eggless cake with choco chips and nuts

Recipe for Egg less Chocolate Cake with Nuts

Makes a 9″ cake

Ingredients:

  •  2 1/4 cups Maida
  • 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey’s )
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk (I used Amul’s 400gm Can)
  • 3/4 cup melted butter (I used Amul’s Salted butter) *
  • 1 cup fresh Orange juice
  • 1 tsp Orange Zest
  • 1 tsp Lemon Zest
  • 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup or less choco- chips
  • 3/4 cup chopped mixed dry fruit/nuts (Almonds, cashews, walnuts, unsalted pistachios )

Method:

  • Preheat the oven at  180 degree C.
  • In  a large mixing bowl, sieve together maida , cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
  • In another bowl, mix condensed milk, juice, zest, melted butter and vanilla essence. Mix well till everything blends nicely.
  • Now mix the wet ingredients, gradually, in the dry ingredients, folding the mixture gently. Scrape off the flour from the sides and mix everything till well blended. Do not whisk or over mix.
  • Now add the choco chips and pour the batter in a greased baking tin and tap the tin gently.
  • Spread the chopped nuts on the surface of the batter.
  • Bake at 180 degree C for around 30-40 minutes or till the surface is well browned and the cake pass the skewer test.( Insert a tooth pick or a skewer in the centre of cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is done, or else bake it further for few minutes or so.)
  • Take out the baking tin from oven and let the cake rest for around 10-20 minutes. Take out the cake from tin and cool it on the rack for at least and hour or so, before cutting it.

 

* If you are using unsalted butter, then just add around 1/4 tsp of salt to the above recipe.

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