How do you make a cake without eggs? This delicious recipe uses a surprising substitute: avocados! The taste of the avocado disappears, but it imparts a wonderfully moist texture to the cake.
Gather your ingredients! Pictured here are the ingredients for the cake batter.
Whisk together the following ingredients in a large mixing bowl: 3 cups of flour, 5 tbsp cocoa powder, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp of salt.
Mash the avocado thoroughly so that there are virtually no lumps. In a new mixing bowl, whisk together the mashed avocado and the following ingredients: 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, 2 cups of water, 2 tbsp of white vinegar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, and finally 2 cups of sugar.
While whisking the wet mixture, slowly pour in the dry mixture.
Once the wet and dry concoctions are completely mixed, the batter is complete!
How you cook the batter is up to you. You could separate it into multiple cake tins to make a layer cake. If you do it this way, be sure to thoroughly oil and flour the pans to allow removing each thin layer without breaking.
You could instead pour it into cupcake liners!
Depending on the container you use, the cooking time will be different. Separating the better into 9″ round pans, it takes about 30 minutes at 350 °F. Poke with a fork to check if it is done; the fork should come away dry.
Cooking cupcakes takes about 25 minutes at 350 °F, but check frequently.
While the batter is baking, gather your frosting ingredients.
Place the flesh of two avocados with 2 cups of powdered sugar and 5 tablespoons of cocoa powder in a food processor.
Don’t try to use granulated sugar for this–it won’t work!
Thoroughly blend the ingredients to make a smooth, creamy frosting. The mild taste of the avocados disappears, leaving a rich dark chocolate flavor.
To make a decorative frosting for the outside of the cake, simply grab your favorite pre-made vegan frosting and whip with three drops of your desired color.
I’ve made a sunny yellow frosting to contrast with the dark cake.
After letting your cake layers cool for at least ten minutes, put a plate over the top of the pan, then quickly turn the pan upside down. Gently tap the bottom of the pan until the cake falls out. Do this for each layer.
Allow the cake layers to cool.
Frost the top of a layer with the rich chocolate frosting. Then, gently place another cake layer on top of the frosting.
If you try to do this step while the cake is warm, the frosting will melt and get absorbed into the cake.
Here’s an example with three layers of cake and two layers of rich chocolate frosting between them.
Frost the outside of the cake with decorative frosting. Again, be sure that the cake is room temperature before applying the frosting. This frosting will slide off the cake as a liquid goop if it’s too warm!
If you’ve made cupcakes, apply a swirl of decorative frosting to the top using a plastic bag. Fill the plastic bag with the frosting, then cut off one of the corners. Squeeze the frosting out of the hole to control your frosting application.
Here is a cross-section of the cake showing three layers.
The moist cake combined with the creamy frosting makes the most decadent texture!
