No-Egg Cake

No eggs in the house? No problem. This one-bowl chocolate cake skips the eggs entirely and still bakes up rich and moist. The combination of sour milk and baking soda provides the lift that eggs normally handle, while boiling water blooms the cocoa powder and creates a deep chocolate flavor you wouldn’t expect from such a simple batter.

Everything goes into a single bowl in order, which means cleanup is a breeze. The melted shortening keeps the crumb tender without the fuss of creaming cold butter. That boiling water might look alarming going into cake batter, but it’s doing real work: it dissolves the cocoa fully so there are no dry, chalky pockets in the finished cake.

Bake this in a tube pan, not a flat cake pan. The center hole lets heat reach the middle of the batter evenly, which matters when there are no eggs to set the structure. Start checking at 50 minutes since every oven runs a little differently.

Chef Tips

• Make sour milk by stirring a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into regular milk. Let it curdle for 5 minutes before using
• The batter will be thinner than a typical cake batter. That’s normal and expected
• Let cool completely before removing from the pan or it will break apart
• Dust with powdered sugar or top with a simple chocolate icing once cooled

Variations

• Use salad oil instead of shortening for an even softer texture
• Add a teaspoon of instant espresso powder to intensify the chocolate flavor
• Pour the batter into a 9×13 pan instead for sheet cake. Reduce bake time by about 15 minutes