Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting (No eggs)

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2015! I try to make something fun and new for new year's every year. Last year I made my first home-made ice cream. I decided to celebrate the end of 2014 and morning sickness by baking a fabulous cake!! I got a kitchenaid stand mixer in a black friday deal and I've been itching to get it out. I decided to make a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. I wanted to share some cake with my neighbors and they don't take eggs, so I decided to make the recipe egg-free!

I adpated Ina Garten's recipe for the cake to suit my needs and modified the frosting recipe that came with my stand mixer.


For the cake -

Makes two 9" round cakes

Ingredients :

Butter or olive oil for greasing the cake tins

Flour - 1 3/4 cup
Brown sugar - 2 cups
Cocoa powder - 3/4 cup
Baking soda 2 tsp
Baking powder 1 tsp
Salt 1 tsp
Milk - 1 cup (I used almond milk)
Olive oil - 1/2 cup
Eggs - 2 (I used Ener-g egg replacer)
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Boiling water - 1 cup (you can use freshly brewed coffee or instant coffee dissolved in the boiling water) I skipped them because I didn't want too much caffeine in the cake.

Method -

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease the cake pans and flour them.

Sift together the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl. Use the paddle attachment and mix for a few seconds.

Whisk together the wet ingredients in another bowl. Set the mixer to a slow speed and add the wet ingredients slowly.

Once well mixed and smooth, divide the batter between the two cake pans.

Bake for 30-35 minutes till a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in the pan first and then cool on a cooling rack. Now we are ready to frost!

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients -

Butter - 1 cup (room temperature)
Powdered sugar - 3 cups
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
Half and half or cream - 3 tablespoons
A pinch of salt


Method -

Place the butter in the stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, whip it for about 2-3 minutes till soft and fluffy.

Add the sugar a little at a time and keep mixing till fully incorporated.

Add the vanilla, salt and continue mixing.

Add the half and half till you reach the desired consistency. I wasn't sure how thick my frosting should be, so I added 3 tbsps of half and half and the frosting was soft but firm and not too sweet.

How to assemble -
Place one cake on a cake stand. Add a big dollop of the icing and spread evenly. Place the other cake curved side down. Press gently. Now add another dollop of icing and spread evenly. Use a spatula to frost the sides. That's it.
So simple in theory but so hard in practice!!
I don't have a cake stand, so frosting was a bit of a challenge. I used a plate and rotated it around to frost. It was a workout, lol. So get a good cake stand and a good offset spatula. I used a straight spatula here and it was really difficult to angle it right.
Place four strips of parchment paper on the plate/stand in a square shape. Then place the cakes on top and start frosting. At the end of frosting, you could just remove the paper and the excess frosting with it.
Wet your spatula for a smooth flat frosting surface. I made a swirly pattern which is not really showing up in the pictures but it gave it a nice, home-made look.
Lastly I added Wilton gold star sprinkles on top for a festive touch!

It was so much fun making the cake!! I'm not a big dessert fan, so I won't be making this on the regular but for the next birthday in our home, I'm definitely going to try out other cake recipes!

Once again, I wish you all a very happy, peaceful and prosperous new year!!