Wednesday 2 November 2011

Tried & Tested Egg-free Chocolate Fairy Cakes

Have you ever wanted a reliable egg-free cake mix? If so this is the one for you. I can’t take any credit for this however as it took my Mum several years to make a good egg-less cake and she has kindly shared with me the recipe. There is quite an art to making a good egg-less cake but with practice it is possible to get really good results.

The basic recipe here can be adapted in a number of ways. We most commonly bake cherry cakes, mixed spice and dried fruit cakes and a plain fairy cake with a jam centre.

One thing I should note is that this recipe works best with a cheaper flour. If you use high quality fine flour the cakes will rise nicely but then come crashing down!

I have not yet tried a vegan version of this cake mixture but I am fairly confident that it could be adapted quite easily.

As a rule egg-less cakes don’t rise quite as well as those containing egg but they do have a good texture and tend to be a little moist, which I personally prefer to the drier texture of egg cakes.

Ingredients:
5oz/150g plain flour
4oz/125g butter like margarine or vegan spread (e.g. Pure)
4oz/125g caster sugar
50g chocolate cut into small chunks
5tbsp approx milk
1tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 heaped tsp soya flour
1tsp baking powder
Vanilla essence

Method:
-      Cream fat and sugar together until light and fluffy.

-      Beat in the soya flour and 1tbsp milk with a few drops of vanilla essence.

-      Put the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a small bowl. Sieve in the flour mixture into the bowl in approximately three batches with the chocolate pieces and approximately 4 tbsp of milk to achieve a soft dropping consistency. Adding the flour in stages with a little milk when folding in each batch ensures that the mixture does not become lumpy. Do not over mix or the cakes will not rise.

-      As soon as the mixture is complete, divide equally into 12 cake cases and quickly place in the oven. Bake at Gas Mark 6/200oC/400oF in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Cool on a wire rack.

2 comments:

  1. I'm not vegan, but namely vegetarian. The one area I do fall at is baking with eggs, so the more recipes like this are always welcome to me. The vegan cakes I have tried, I have to admit have all been fab - so I should cook recipes such as yours more often.

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  2. These look delicious! I am not vegan or vegetarian myself, but I find that vegan recipes can often be better than regular!

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