I did this last month for my daughter’s first birthday, hence the excess use of gems and lychees. My original plan was to make the layered chocolate cake from Joy of Baking. But then my parents decided to come and they do not have eggs. So I needed a new chocolate cake recipe without eggs. Voila this one!

It was not as airy and light as my cakes with eggs turn out. But I am guessing that may be because I did not mix properly or some other error from my end. But it tasted great and the daughter loved it as did the others. So win-win!

Ingredients 

1 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 cup butter

3/4 cup hot coffee

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup mashed bananas

For the frosting

30 gms chocolate (any type)

38 gms unsalted butter at room temperature

38 gms icing sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C

2. Grease a pan and put in a parchment paper

3. Mix all the 4 dry ingredients together

4. Add the butter, coffee and vanilla essence and mix

5. Add the mashed bananas and blend thoroughly

6. Bake for 45-55 minutes

7. Cool for 20 minutes before taking it out of the pan

8. For the frosting, melt the chocolate by double boiler method (See note) and cool to room temperature

9. Beat the butter for one minute in the hand blender or till it is smooth and creamy

10. Add sugar and beat it for 2 minutes or till it is light and fluffy

11. Add vanilla essence and beat it to mix in

12. Add the chocolate and beat on low till it is incorporated and then on high till the frosting is smooth and glossy. It should take around 2-3 minutes

13. Once the cake is cooled, use a knife to apply the frosting on the cake evenly.

Notes

1. The original recipe was vegan and hence used oil but I wanted a richer version and so I substituted the butter for oil

2. The recipe also called for hot water but I used hot instant coffee instead. It gave a good flavour to the cake

3. My bundt pan was small in size and hence I used a regular pan. You could use either

4. The bananas need to be thoroughly mashed else they stick out as lumps even in the finished cake which is not good.

5. The frosting recipe is from here. I used it because it was a birthday cake. You can even make it without the frosting. Same goes for the sprinkles and lychees.

6. Double boiler method – Heat some water in a vessel. Put chocolates in another vessel and keep it on top of the boiling water vessel. The chocolate will start melting. Stir occasionally and remove it once the chocolate has fully melted into a sauce.

Happy Baking!