This is my first ever marble cake. That is odd, considering how my mom usually bakes marble cakes. She mixes up a basic vanilla cake with a bit of cocoa powder mixed in the batter towards the end for the chocolate swirls. That is usually the beauty of a marble cake. No two of them will ever be alike and you don’t know what you will end up with until you cut into the cake.
I got myself teeny tiny 3 3/4 inch loaf pans. They are so much fun, especially for recipe development. I wanted a good eggless cake recipe. I tried it out a couple of times in my tiny cake pan, tweaked it here and there and I think I almost have it.
Now, I won’t lie. I love a good eggy vanilla or chocolate cake. Eggs are added in cake batter for a reason. The aroma, the airiness, the taste just can’t be beat. And then there is eggless baking. Some do it for health, which is kind of moot if you bake the occasional cake. I mean, cake does contain large amounts of flour and sugar already. If one can eat that, one can afford to add an egg, right? Then there are the times when you crave a good cake and you open the fridge to see you forgot to get eggs on your last grocery run. That’s when you bake an eggless cake.
You can use mashed bananas or applesauce in place of eggs, but be prepared to end up with a strong banana/apple flavor in whatever you intend to bake. The next best thing would be yogurt. Now we could do flax-seed and such, but if you forgot to get eggs, I am betting you don’t stock up on flax-seeds in your pantry too. Now, yogurt is a staple at our home and it worked really well.
The cake was good. Eggs would have made it better. Still, this one was good enough. To start with, you need to beat the yogurt, sugar and oil really well. They will resist to meet at first, the oil staying in a stubborn layer on top, but beat it well for 2-3 minutes and you will end up with a fluffy, homogenous mixture. Then gently fold in the sifted dry ingredients. Reserve some batter for the chocolate part. You could simply add a little cocoa powder and milk to it, but I took the trouble of dissolving the cocoa powder in hot water. The amount of light and dark batter too is up to you. Make as much or as little of each as you like.
And so is the swirling technique. You can alternate spoonfuls of light and dark batter in the pan or you can partially fill the pan with vanilla cake batter first, then swirl in a little chocolate batter and repeat till both batters are used up. That is what I did. The top of the cake will crack too. That is perfectly normal in a loaf cake. For this reason, some would call it marble bread.
I developed upon my simple vanilla cake recipe and came up with this recipe. Once done, I realized that the cake is not only free of eggs, but butter too! And the sugar too has been drastically reduced, though one would never miss any of these ingredients in the baked product. It really is very good. Read on for the recipe now.
EGGLESS VANILLA AND CHOCOLATE MARBLE LOAF CAKE
You will need:
- All purpose flour – 2 cups
- Baking powder – 1 1/2 tsp
- Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
- Salt – 1/2 tsp
- Yogurt – 2/3 cup
- Sugar – 1 cup
- Oil – 1/2 cup (use some kind of non-flavored oil like vegetable oil)
- Vanilla extract – 1 1/2 tsp
- Milk – 2/3 cup
- Cocoa powder – 4 tbsp
- Hot Water – 4 tbsp
How to:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg.F. Line and grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt at least two times and keep aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the yogurt and sugar on high for 2 minutes. Add the oil and vanilla extract. Beat for 2-3 minutes till the mixture is well combined and creamy.
- Add the flour mixture and milk to the batter alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Gently fold in the dry ingredients with a spatula and do not over-mix.
- Meanwhile, dissolve the cocoa powder in hot water and whisk well to remove any lumps. Remove around 1/3rd of the cake batter and incorporate the cocoa mixture in it.
- Pour 1/3rd of the vanilla cake batter in the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Dot with half of the cocoa batter and swirl once with a knife or skewer. Repeat the layers once more till both batters are used up. Use the knife or skewer to make a couple of swirls or random zigzag patterns on the batter. Take care to go all the way down to the pan, but resist the urge to overdo the marbling.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or till the cake passes the toothpick test.
- Remove and cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove the cake and cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes:
- If you like Nutella, use it instead of cocoa powder. You can also flavor the reserved batter with anything else you fancy, like strawberry milk powder or even some kind of jam or fruit preserve.
- I did two layers of batters because I used more cocoa powder and I also ended up with more of a chocolate topped cake. Reduce the amount of cocoa powder and water to 2 tbsp each if you would rather have lesser of the chocolate part.
A moist, delicious slice of marble cake. Perfect for tea time or any time you crave a little magic!
Have you made marble cake? Or eggless cakes? Do share.
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Awesome cake! Please tell me, how much 1cup flour and sugar is equal to?
I am sorry your question is unclear. Are you looking to convert to metric units? You will find conversion resources online.
My 7 year old has been anaphylactic to eggs since 18 months old. In that time I have made a LOT of egg free cakes, cookies, etc. I made this recipe this past weekend for my mom’s birthday, and oh my, this is easily the best egg free recipe I’ve made over the years. My 7 year old has requested that I make this every week 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
I am so sorry to hear about your boy’s food struggles. It must be hard.
I am glad this recipe worked out for you. I must say, this is one of the most heart-warming comments I’ve ever received. Thank you, Melinda!!
this cake looks absolutely yummy!
Thank you!!
Wow! This looks so gorgeous, Anjana!! Bookmarked!! 😀
Thank you, Jhuls! It is such an easy one too!!
Thank you for posting Anjani – this is the perfect New Year find. My little niece is allergic to eggs and always misses out on cake. I’m going to bake a whole batch in my mini muffin loaf pan for her – some to be enjoyed now and the rest for the freezer.
That’ so sweet of you. I hope your niece enjoys the cake. Btw, you can always replace egg with yogurt or applesauce in cake recipes.
Looks amazingly delicious, pinned!
Thank you, Lily!
Beautiful cake!!
Thank you, Sherry!
This looks yummy, and so fluffy I would never have guessed it was eggless! I’ve made vegan sugar free cake before, it was actually pretty good but not good enough for me to convert to that baking haha!
I will definitely keep this recipe on file for when I’ve forgotten eggs (or if i ever bake for somebody with an egg allergy)
Thank you, Michelle. I love a proper cake too, but it is nice to have an alternative!
How delicious Anjana! Love the swirls in this loaf, I first thought it was a swiss roll 🙂
Thank you so much, Naina!
Oh, very yummy! Now all I need is cup of coffee! 🙂
Thank you! Coffee and cake is just bliss!!
The words ‘eggless’ and ‘cake’ always seem to improve my hearing. What a fantastic recipe and it would be super easy to make it vegan too.
I’ve done a lot of egg free baking over the years… you win some – you loose some 😉
Have a great weekend.
You are right! Eggless baking is a win some- lose some situation. But what a treat when it does turn out good!!
Hi Anjana – this looks fabulous – you wouldn’t even think it was eggless! The chocolate bits look so rich – I could do with a slice just now!! Thanks for sharing this with us and Happy Fiesta Friday!
I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out, considering it didn’t have eggs or butter!
Thanks for visiting, Selma. Appreciate it!!
It looks very good Anjana. Thanks for sharing at this week’s FF 🙂
Thank you, Jess!
Anjana!! Love this cake!! It looks so moist and delicious. . Beautiful swirls. . 🙂
Thank you, Arpita! I love those swirls too 🙂
Gorgeous Anjana. .. love it’s chocolatey look…. yum mm. ..
Thank you, Chitra!
Looks great, moist and a really nice crumb.
Thank you. The cake was quite lovely!
How beautiful, and I can’t believe there were no eggs, just marvellous! Love your loaf pans too, what a treat it must have been to bake in those. I have all the ingredients, so what am I waiting for…..thanks~
Thank you, Loretta! I hope you try it 🙂
What a beautiful cake, Anjana! Love that it is eggless too. I’ve been wanting to try a marble cake and now I know I’m soon going to!
Thank you, Apsara. Do try a marble cake. Each one is so unique 🙂
I am loving the look of it :). Just gorgeous cake Anjana :).
Thank you dear 🙂
Looks great Anjana!! Never tried an eggless cake….it sure looks like it came out fantastically!
Thank you, Lori!
Thank you Anjana… for making it egg free! I esp appreciate that you give meaningful very well tried an tested pointers. I am defnt beating the sugar-oil-yoghurt very well henceforth. Love!!
Thanks for the love, Namrata!
I always had trouble with baking substitutions. The cake either sank or turned dense. When I beat the oil, yogurt and sugar really well like I described, it turned out great!