How To Make An Eggless Chocolate Cake

How to make a moist and fluffy eggless chocolate cake with ermine frosting. Tastes so good, you won't even notice it's eggless!

To find the best egg replacer, I decided to use my easy chocolate cake recipe as the base recipe and tested out different types of egg replacers to see which one made the best tasting eggless cake. Keep in mind that if you decide to do your own testing with a different recipe, you might find that a different egg replacer works better for you.

Eggless chocolate cake ingredients

The most important ingredient in this recipe is of course the unsweetened applesauce, which is what we are using in place of eggs but be sure to read the full blog post for other egg substitutes that you might want to try. If you don't want to use coffee you can just use hot water. I'm using Hershey's cocoa powder but you can use any kind you like.

How to make eggless chocolate cake step-by-step

Making the cake could not be easier! You only need one bowl and there's no special mixing method.

1. Prepare two 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop or another preferred type of pan release. Preheat your oven to 350ºF
2. Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on low 5 seconds just until combined. 
3. Add in the applesauce, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Scrape the bowl.
4. Turn the mixer down to low and add in the hot coffee and mix until just it's just combined. 
5. Pour the batter into your prepared cake pans.
6. Bake the cakes at 350ºF for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Cool the cakes in the pan for about 15 minutes (or until the pan is barely warm to the touch) then invert onto wire racks to cool completely before frosting. I wrap my cakes in plastic wrap and freeze them for at least 30 minutes to lock in moisture.

Ermine frosting step-by-step

This ermine frosting is SO light, fluffy, and not too sweet. It reminds me of that old-school filling inside of Hostess ding dongs. The perfect frosting for our eggless cake. Other good options for eggless frosting are my traditional American buttercream or stabilized whipped cream.

1. Whisk together your flour and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook for about 2 minutes to toast the flour. Be careful not to burn it!
2. Slowly add in your milk, whisk to combine, and bring your heat to medium-high.
3. Bring the mixture to a simmer, whisk continuously until it is thick and pudding-like. Once it's simmering, cook for one minute more to make sure the flour taste is cooked out.
4. (Optional) If your mixture has any lumps, place a colander on top of a heat-proof bowl and push your mixture through and into the bowl. Transfer the mixture into a heat-proof bowl or a shallow cake pan if you want it to cool down faster.
5. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap so that it is touching the surface without any air bubbles in between, this will prevent a skin from forming on the top of the mixture. Let cool in the refrigerator for a few hours until it's completely cooled down. Or you can spread onto a sheet pan and freeze for 30 minutes to cool faster. If it's even a little warm it will melt your butter later.
6. Add your softened butter to the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk on high until very light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
7. Place the cooled flour mixture into a piping bag and slowly pipe it into your butter as you whip at medium speed. Incorporating the base slowly ensures a smooth buttercream. 
8. Add in your vanilla and salt, then mix until everything is light and creamy. If you have a lot of bubbles you can mix your frosting on low with the paddle attachment to make it smoother. Ermine frosting sets up after a few hours, so you'll want to use it immediately. It does not freeze or store well.

Cake assembly

Assembling the cake is super simple! I went with a standard rope border and some sprinkles but you can treat ermine frosting the same way as any other type of frosting. You can even pipe flowers or color it with food coloring. If you want more information on how to frost and fill your cake the first time, you can check out my tutorial on how to decorate your first cake.

1. Trim the domes off your cakes so they are nice and level
2. Add a nice thick layer of your ermine frosting on top and make it even with your offset spatula.
3. Add your second layer of cake on top.
4. Frost the whole cake in a thin layer of ermine frosting and then refrigerate it for 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
5. Apply your final coat of buttercream and smooth out the edges.
6. Use a 1M piping tip in a piping bag to add a rope border around the top of the cake and finish with some fun sprinkles.

What do eggs do?

Eggs have two jobs. To bind the ingredients together and create a structure that traps air and helps the cake rise. Egg yolks can also add flavor and moisture to a cake. So if we remove the eggs, we need to find something else that can do that job.

What makes a good egg replacer?

I tried a LOT of different replacers but I'm only going to talk about the ones that I think worked pretty well and could potentially work in other recipes.

The first thing I did was I baked my easy chocolate cake and left out all the eggs. Supposedly if you just mix the cake more, the liquid in the recipe acts as a binder similar to an egg.

Spoiler alert... It did not work out.

So what does work? Let's dive into some of my most successful experiments on my journey to find the best egg replacer.

A common replacement for eggs is ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce per egg but have you ever wondered why? The reason why applesauce makes a good replacement for an egg is mainly the pectin. Pectin acts as a binder much like an egg does while also adding moisture like an egg would.

The applesauce cake layer had a great taste, texture, and only a slight divot in the top of the cake. I decided to test it a second time but add a little extra baking powder to give the cake more lift and that totally fixed that divot.

Once I discovered this info, I decided to test out some other replacements that utilized pectin to see what resulted in the best taste and texture.

My second test was with an unripe banana. I decided to go with a green banana since it's starchier and has more pectin than when it's ripe and the starches turn to sugar. The unripe banana actually worked really well but you could definitely taste the banana. Not a bad flavor at all but if you don't like banana, might not be the best choice.

So this got me thinking, maybe I could try STRAIGHT PECTIN. Why not right? I combined 1 Tablespoo powdered pectin with 3 Tablespoons water per egg.

The pectin didn't work QUITE as well as I had hoped. It fell a bit and was a bit crumbly but maybe after some tweaking of amounts of liquid and fat, it could work. The best part was that it didn't leave behind any aftertaste so it's definitely worth more experimenting.

Ground flax is another popular replacement. When combined with water and given time to rest, the flax makes a gluey substance that resembles the structure of an egg as well as some fat. I found that the flax was not quite strong enough to support the cake and it left behind an odd sort of flavor and texture. Flax might be better in cookies or muffins in my opinion.

Another option is using Yogurt or buttermilk as a replacement. I actually thought the rise on this worked out really well. The cake was very moist and fudgy. The center fell a TINY bit but I think if I reduced the liquid a bit then it would be perfect so yogurt is another great option.

The last thing we tested was blended tofu which worked surprisingly well but was a little dry and crumbly. You could add more fat to the recipe to account for the dryness. Maybe even half tofu, half applesauce.

I also tested just traditional egg replacer and it did pretty well. It was a little dry but had good structure and is a really good option if you want to have a pretty good egg replacer on your shelf to use at any time. I used the Bobs Red Mill Commercial egg replacer but there are tons of brands out there. Just look for them in the baking aisle or buy them online.

The best egg replacers

Now that you know the results of my tests, you can do some of your own testing with your favorite recipe. Let me know if you find something that works for you!

Amounts listed below are = to one egg

1. Commercial egg replacer - 1 Tablespoon replacer + 2 Tablespoons water
2. ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce + ½ teaspoon extra baking powder
3. ½ large ripe banana mashed + ½ teaspoon extra baking powder
4. 1T pectin powder + 3T water
5. 1 Tablespoon Ground Flax + 3 Tablespoons Water. Let sit for 5 minutes before using.
6. 4 Tablespoons Soy Yogurt
7. ¼ cup silken tofu blended (may need to add 2 ounces more oil, yogurt or butter to the recipe for extra moisture)

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