May 1

May 1 Best Chocolate Cake (no eggs, milk, or butter and you wouldn’t know it!)

This is one of those wonderful recipes that I have on a little index card in my cabinet and pull out any time there is a celebration that calls for a cake. This recipe became my stand by chocolate cake for two reasons: 1, it tastes delicious and is very moist and 2, it is inexpensive and easy to make because it doesn’t use eggs, milk, or butter. Now I’m not vegan, and I love butter cakes, but having a recipe like this that you can whip up in one bowl in 5 minutes, just can’t be beat. The two tricks I use to add flavor to this cake are the use of brown sugar or part coconut sugar, and using coffee, or caffix (grain based coffee substitute) for all or most of the liquid.

I have made some fancy layer cakes using this recipe, and I’ll get around to posting all the fillings and butter cream recipes one of these days, but for now, I want to share this basic recipe that I taught my son how to make for his 16th birthday on our recent podcast together. You can serve this up plain, with a simple mocha glaze, topped with fresh fruit, or layered with any fillings you like. It’s a great cake for quarantine because of the minimal ingredients, and it takes well to substitutions (part whole wheat flour, part coconut sugar, coffee instead of milk, etc…)

I hope you get as much use out of this recipe as I do! Enjoy!

Best Chocolate Cake topped with melted chocolate with a splash of milk whisked in (aka. ganache) and some formerly frozen berries.

Best Chocolate Cake (and it’s Vegan)

Makes: 3 - 8 or 9 inch rounds, 1 full 12x17 inch sheet pan or 24 cupcakes

2 cups strong coffee or grain based coffee substitute such as caffix (or part or all of this can be dairy or non-dairy milk)
2 teaspoons vinegar or lemon juice
2 cup dark brown sugar (you can do 2 cups white sugar or part coconut sugar as well)
2/3 cups neutral oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour (half or part whole wheat, or white/wheat can work well too)
2/3 cocoa (I used extra dark dutched cocoa - which gave it the dark color)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350. Oil three round 8 inch cake pans, and line the bottoms with a circle of parchment paper. You can flour the pan if you don’t have parchment.
Combine milk, vinegar, sugar, oil, vanilla, and salt. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt.
In a medium bowl sift or whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix just until combined. Pour evenly into the prepared pans and place on the middle or top rack of the oven.
Bake for 25 -30 minutes, or just until a tooth pick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely, before removing the cake from the pan.
Serving suggestions: plain is always fine, or with a dusting of cocoa or powdered sugar. A simple glaze of cocoa and powdered sugar mixed with water, milk, or coffee is also great…and then there’s, whipped cream, fresh fruit, jam, butter cream… whatever you’re in the mood for.