When it comes to Birthday Cakes it is essential to use tried and tested recipes-after all you don’t want to find out that the cake is not cooked after you’ve gone through the trouble of decorating it. One such tried and tested recipe is the one I would like to share today – it is a very simple chocolate cake-it is also eggless and contains no dairy products in it either so could also be classified as a vegan cake – that is if you don’t add any cream or butter cream icing to it. The cake pictured in this post has a Dark Chocolate Ganache frosting topped with fresh raspberries.
Easy Eggless Chocolate Cake Recipe
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes
Yield: serves 6 .This recipe is This recipe is suitable for a 16cm diameter round cake tin.
One of the things I love most about this recipe is that it you can also add chunks of chocolate to it to turn an ordinary cake into an extraordinary one. I was quite skeptical about using vinegar but once cooked you would never know the cake has vinegar in it. The vinegar and baking powder react to give this cake its soft texture.
A similar recipe for making eggless cakes is to use lemon juice instead of vinegar. The cake itself is fairly sweet, I used dark chocolate for the topping so the raspberries helped compliment the bittersweet cake. You can also use butter cream icing or top with cherries or toppings of your choice.
Ingredients
- 1,5 cups flour
- 3 tablespoon cocoa powder
- half cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar or 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- Pinch of salt
- Sift the dry ingredients.
- Combine the water, oil and vinegar.
- Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients.
- Mix until a smooth batter is formed.
- Place into a greased baking tin. Bake for 35 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.
- Allow to cool then decorate as desired.
How To Make Chocolate Ganache
- • 175ml fresh cream
- • 100g dark chocolate
Method:
- Melt the chocolate until smooth.
- Remove from heat – add the cream. Mix until a smooth paste is formed.
- Leave aside or place in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
- Mix until smooth then apply once the cake has cooled.
Easy Cake Decoration
Decorate Cake with Fruit
My primary choice of cake decoration is fruit! namely berries. Their bright colour and forms are a flop proof way to decorate cakes. Make sure the fruit are not wet, this could make the cake soggy if left overnight. I wash berries then dry with paper towel.
Easy Way to Decorate a Themed Birthday Cake
I was enthusiastic about my son’s first birthday so I made a fondant figure of his favourite Fischer Price character. By the time his third birthday came around, I had much less time and therefore enthusiasm and patience for fondant. Instead I used toy figures. For smaller kids take care not to use too small pieces. Remove figures before cutting. I found my son’s reaction was better than with fondant figures. He could play with the figures. Like this Fireman Sam which I made the night before using the recipe listed in this post. Instead of chocolate ganache I opted for a mascapone cheese frosting. The perfect backdrop for brightly coloured Fireman Sam figures.
