Recipe for 'deliciously moist' chocolate cake uses no eggs, milk or butter (2024)

FAQs

What happens to a cake without enough eggs? ›

You will end up with an edible cake but it will not turn out as the recipe intended because it won't rise so much and the texture will be denser. It's better to add 2oz or 3–4 tablespoons of something wet to replace the missing egg.

One common ingredient swap that is known to help make cakes remarkably moist is using milk instead of water. Try switching out any water in your recipe for full-fat milk or buttermilk for a moist, decadent texture. Another ingredient that can enhance the moisture of your cake is mayonnaise.

Baking tip #2: adding milk to your box cake mix in place of water adds a dense texture to your dessert leaving it moist and flavorful like a homemade cake. Or, if you prefer, you can add buttermilk, giving your cake a tangy flavor to balance out the sweetness.

Using a 1/4 cup of milk or yogurt in place of eggs is perfect for baked goods where moisture is key, such as cakes or muffins. (Vegans can use plant-based milks or yogurt in its place.

Adding extra wet ingredients like yoghurt or sour cream can really help your cake retain moisture, especially if you're cooking with chocolate which is notorious for drying out a bake.

Applesauce acts much like the fat. It keeps the flour protein from mixing completely with the wet ingredients and forming a rubbery, dense texture. This is what does applesauce do in baking.

Sour cream is one of the fattiest dairy products; the extra fat content (for example, adding sour cream to a cake instead of milk) will make the cake moister and richer, says Wilk. "Fat, in any form (butter, lard, cream, etc.) shortens gluten strands, which essentially leads to the most tender baked goods," she adds.

Is it better to use oil or butter in cakes? ›

Texture:Cakes made with oil tend to be moister and have a more tender crumb. Oil coats the flour proteins better than butter, resulting in a softer texture. Cakes made with butter can have a richer flavor and a slightly firmer texture. Butter contributes to a more traditional and dense cake structure.

Baking with Sour Cream: The creamy texture of sour cream makes baked goods more moist than if you used milk. This makes sour cream an excellent choice for recipes that are known to have drier results, like sponge cakes.

Mayonnaise, the least likely of the bunch, actually gives the closest result to having used oil, and it retains the flavors of your cake or whatever baked good you are creating very well! Yogurt and sour cream also work in a pinch, but do change the flavor profile a tad.

However, sour cream is thicker than buttermilk, so it's best to thin it with water or milk when making a buttermilk substitute. To replace 1 cup (240 mL) of buttermilk in a recipe, combine 3/4 cup (172 grams) of sour cream with 1/4 cup (60 mL) of water or milk, and whisk the mixture until smooth.

By removing this structure-building ingredient, you make the cake less structurally sound, so it becomes less fluffy and more likely to fall apart. Additionally, eggs also add to the cake's flavor profile, so cakes without eggs may taste too sugary.

Is It Safe to Eat Cake Mix Raw? Unfortunately, according to the CDC, the answer is no, and for the same reason you shouldn't eat raw cookie dough. Despite popular belief, the danger isn't in the raw eggs going into the mix—it's in the flour.

Eggs play an important role in everything from cakes and cookies to meringues and pastry cream — they create structure and stability within a batter, they help thicken and emulsify sauces and custards, they add moisture to cakes and other baked goods, and can even act as glue or glaze.

Cakes with eggs also tend to rise more than eggless cakes. This is because the proteins in the eggs help to stabilize the structure of the cake. Eggless cakes often rely on chemical leaveners, such as baking soda, to help them rise. Another difference between the two types of cake is the flavour.