Eggless Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Today is my younger Annaya’s birthday. Between the sister and me, we have always craved for elder brothers right since we were very little. Atleast the sister had me, an elder sister but I wanted someone to look up to – a brother figure to be exact. And our share of brotherly love came from our cousin brothers. Our Pedanannagaru and Pedammagaru (Uncle and Aunt as in my dad’s elder brother and SIL) always looked after us like their own daughters and so our cousin brothers are more like our own brothers. Growing up, we hardly met each other for a few days every year but that hardly mattered. In fact, the last I saw my brothers were last year March, but that doesn’t in the tiniest bit reduce our love and affection for each other. Thanks to social media and apps like whatsapp, we are always connected and I know that they are always there for me. Today is a special day for our annaya, who is the sweetest, loveliest, affectionate and the most caring person 🙂 He laughs heartily even at my stupidest jokes and always has words of encouragement for anything I do. When all the four of us are together, we bring the roof down with our nonstop banter and laughs. He loves our food and kitchen stories, always ready to compliment on anything we make 🙂 Missing you Annaya! Happiest birthday to you 🙂

Though miles apart, I wanted to celebrate my Annaya’s birthday and the first thing that stuck me this morning was the chocolate cake. I know I can’t send this cake to him today, but whenever we meet I promise to prepare it for him 🙂

I chose a recipe that hardly requires any whipping at all, making it the easiest chocolate cake ever made. Instead of using eggs, I used flaxseed meal and the result is a beautiful, moist, rich chocolate cake. For the frosting, I used home-made cream cheese and blended it with cocoa powder to get a rich chocolate frosting. I have never like butter cream frosting and whipping cream is so difficult to find in regular stores here. This cream cheese frosting turned out lip-smackingly delicious and it’s going to be my go-to 🙂

To Make Eggless Chocolate Cake

Serves  - 4

Time to prepare – 60mins

What I used –

• Maida/All Purpose Flour, 2 cups
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder, ¾ cup
• Baking Powder, 2 tsp
• Baking Soda, 1.5 tsp
• Instant Coffee Powder, 1 tsp
• Salt, ½ tsp
• Sugar, 1.5 cups
• Toned Milk, 1 cup (at room temp)
• Oil, ½ cup
• Flaxseed Meal, 2 tbsp
• Vanilla Essence, 1 tsp
• Boiling Water, 1 cup + 6 tbsp

To Make Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

• Toned Milk, ½ ltr
• Vinegar or Lemon Juice, 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar, 1 cup
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder, 1.5 tbsp
• Instant Coffee Powder, ½ tsp
• Silver Sugar Balls, for decoration (optional)

How I made –

Eggless Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat oven on 180deg C for atleast 15mins.
2. In a bowl add maida, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, instant coffee powder and mix well using a spoon.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl add 2 tablespoon of flaxseed meal and add 6 tablespoon of boiling water. Mix well. Set aside.
4. In another bowl add oil, milk, vanilla essence and the flaxseed meal mix. Mix well. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture. Using a hand beater, mix well without any lumps.
5. Pour a cup of boiling water and whisk well using a hand beater for about couple of minutes. Alternatively, one can use an electric whisk as well for about a minute.
6. Prepare a baking dish by coating it with oil or lining it with parchment paper.
7. Pour this mixture into it and bake on 180deg C for about 35-40mins or until an inserted knife/toothpick comes out clean.
8. Rest it for atleast ten minutes before inverting it on to plate. And completely cool it before applying the frosting.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Boil milk and remove it off the flame.
2. Mix 2 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice in some water and pour it into the milk. Keep stirring it for a couple of minutes. Curds should separate from the whey (the left over water content).
3. Strain the curds from the whey using a thin muslin cloth and wash them over with water to remove any sour taste from vinegar/lemon juice. Tightly squeeze off any water content and let it rest for 5 mins.
4. In a mixer jar, add the milk curds and blend for a minute until really smooth. This is the close equivalent to the cream cheese that can be prepared at home.
5. To the cream cheese, add icing sugar, cocoa powder and instant coffee powder. Blend in the same mixer jar for 30sec and the frosting is ready.
6. When the cake is completely cooled, spread the frosting and decorate it with silver sugar balls.

Note: The baking times vary from oven to oven, keep checking the cake after 30mins to see if it’s done. For each egg that is called out in a recipe, you can use a tablespoon of flaxseed meal and three tablespoon of boiling water. To prepare flaxseed meal at home, blend flaxseeds until really fine in a mixer jar. Make sure that the milk curds for preparing the cream cheese is completely removed of the water or else, the frosting can be runny. If the frosting is too thick to spread, a teaspoon of milk can be added.