Thursday, February 22, 2007

Eggless almond cake

I got the original recipe for this cake from http://www.eggless.com and appropriated it for my own use, as it were, halving the ingredients to make a smaller cake and substituting others to make it lower in fat if not in sugar. The cake tasted quite nice, but the texture was heavy, with a dense crumb.



I assume that was because of the lack of eggs to make the batter light, but I could be wrong. Perhaps it was because I used low-fat yogurt instead of sour cream.

In any case, I'll be trying out more eggless cakes from now on because I've just bought a book published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust - "The Book of Eggfree Cakes". The author goes by the somewhat unlikely name of Cintia Stammers - not that her name is of any consequence, as long as the cakes turn out well.



The reason I say I'll be trying out the recipes in the next couple of months is because my mother's arriving next week - and since she does not eat eggs in any form, she'll be the perfect guinea pig for the eggless cakes I bake! Watch this space. Or, more accurately, watch this blog! :)

Recipe for:
Eggless almond cake




Ingredients:

1-1/4 cups white self-raising flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
3 tbsp fat-free yogurt (I used Greek-style)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp almond essence
1/4 cup flaked almonds
15-20 whole almonds, de-skinned
Non-stick spray to grease the cake pan

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease a 6-inch round cake pan.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Sift the flour and baking powder into another bowl. Mix the yogurt and the milk together in a small jug.

4. Add 1/3 of the flour mix to the creamed butter and beat in thoroughly. Then pour a third of the milk mixture and beat it in. Finish up the remaining flour and milk mix the same way till you get a fairly thick batter. Make sure you beat well after each addition.

5. Now stir in the almond essence and the flaked almonds.



Pour this batter into the greased baking tin.

6. Arrange the whole almonds in a pretty pattern over the batter, pushing each almond in lightly with a finger tip but without making them sink in to the batter.



7. Bake for an hour or till the cake tests done. The almonds on top should be a light brown.



8. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack and let cool completely before slicing.

10 comments:

g said...

This is perfect for me. Somehow (due to Murphy's Laws?) I always get the baking bug when I dont have eggs in the fridge! Strange, I know :)

I really like that you post even medium-successful recipes. Thats what they are most of the time, arent they?

Anonymous said...

Eggless cakes, hurray! We have many such eggless days and months. Your recipes will be a treasure then...

Keep on posting!

Lakshmik said...

The cake looks so yummy. And also thanks for leading us to eggless.com.

Terri the terrific said...

Thanks for the link to eggless.com. I have to let you know that I had my eye on your eggless maple pecan cake for quite some time now, but tastegoblet's rave review gave me the impetus to finally make it. It turned out delicious (only complaint being the amount of oil in it), so I'm on a quest now for eggless baking.

I checked out the link above, and it looks like I might have a fruitful weekend. Many thanks!

Priya said...

Eggless cakes !! Wonderful...I'll watch this space, posts, blogs...everything for them :-) and you are soo lucky to have your mom visit you, I have been nagging my mom for the last few months but she just won't agree :-(

Anonymous said...

g: yeah, I post all but the most disastrous recipes I make :) Those I merely write about - nobody needs MY recipe for disaster.... they can find out their own! :D What I say about the recipes I try out is the literal truth. If they come out well, I say so. If not, I say that too.

Mika: Thanks :)

Terri: That is a fab cake. I dunno how it might taste with applesauce to make up some of the fat content...

Priya: I know I'm lucky to have my mom here. I've been asking her for MONTHS! Hope yours agrees to visit you soon :)

Anonymous said...

Lakshmik - you're welcome! :)

Unknown said...

Hi
The cake looks perfect, liked the decorations of almonds all over the cake. Gives it a very rich look. I like to bake my cakes without eggs and thx for sharing this recipe here.
Chk here for eggless carrot cake:
http://www.indusladies.com/forums/31062-post66.html

Latha Narasimhan said...

Hi shammi,
what yummy cakes without eggs! the almond cake has been baked with love and care! nice blog!

Anonymous said...

Hi shammi,
i've been luking for a almond cake for quite some time now. Any modifications to b made on baking this cake??Since u said it was dense