I’ve updated this post a bit to make it look better. But the images come from the time when I did this experiment, in 2013, and they aren’t very good. I’ll try and repeat everything and take better pictures.

Chocolate Fudge Cake, made with or without eggs

Been having another little play in the kitchen today. Made two chocolate fudge cakes, one made with oil not butter, and eggs, my usual version. The other made with oil and no eggs, which coincidentally is vegan if this is of interest to you. I make a very good chocolate fudge if I’m allowed to blow my own trumpet. I wanted to try one with no eggs as I am experimenting making cakes with no eggs because often I can’t include eggs in a weekly plan as there aren’t enough funds, and even if I do include eggs, I can’t afford to use 4 of them to make a cake.

This is oil, sugar and 4 eggs whisked up. The usual fluffy mixture, with lots of volume.

This is the oil and sugar and no eggs mixture at the same stage. Wasn’t at all sure what this would be like. It had a little volume, but nowhere near as much as the eggy version. I didn’t know if it would homogenise together, but it did.

 

The oil and eggs cake after baking. This is a soft, tender cake.

The no eggs baked cakes. You can probably see that the texture is very different from the eggy version. It didn’t feel soft and it wasn’t holding together, it was positively crumbly. I wasn’t at all sure if it was going to work at all at this stage.

The no eggs cakes turned out of the tins. You can see the texture better here.

The fudge icing in the saucepan

The iced usual version

And the no eggs version

 

 

Vegan chocolate fudge cake versus chocolate fudge cake with eggs

A direct comparison of the two versions. The eggy version is on the right, the non-egg version on the left. I am very pleased with the height of the eggless version and the tenderness of the crumb in the completed cake.
In summary, although more difficult to handle, the eggless version is well worth making and a very tasty cake. The advantage of the fudge icing is that it covers up all the flaws.  So all in all, a resounding success. Although now I’ve costed it, there is no way I can include a £2.28 tin of cocoa in a £14 weekly shop :0, oh well. Maybe one of the many other versions would be doable.

There is surprisingly little difference in cost between the egg and non-egg version, this surprised me. It is down to the cost of the cocoa powder. I had to increase the amount quite a bit in the non-egg version. It just goes to show – I am constantly surprised when pricing things, some are more expensive than I thought they would be, others much less. We just need to work it out so we know.

And so, the recipes, the first version is in the recipe card, I want to improve the vegan version and will put it in a recipe card when I have

Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

as an egg weighs about 80g, I needed to replace that volume, 4*80g=320g, so I have increased the remaining ingredients accordingly

300ml veg oil, Tesco £1.25/litre, 37p
300g sugar, 88p/kg, 26p
300g self raising flour, or plain with 2tsp baking powder, 45p value brand/1.5kg, 9p
70g cocoa £2.25/250g, 63p
a scant tblsp vinegar, any kind except malt or a strong balsamic ( I used distilled white vinegar that was in the cleaning cupboard!)
6tbslp water

Whisk the oil and sugar together.

Use a stand mixer if you have one, or a big bowl and a big wooden spoon. Stir in the water – this was needed as the eggs provided a lot of moisture which was now missing

Sieve the flour and cocoa together and fold them gently into the oil and sugar mixture.

Meanwhile, line 2 x 20cm sandwich tins and heat the oven to 180C fan/200C non-fan/Gas Mark 6.

Pour half the mix into each tin and level off the top. Put them into the oven immediately (baking powder starts to work as soon as it gets wet). I needed to increase the bake for this version from 20 minutes to 27 minutes in my fan oven, so 32 minutes or so in a non-fan.

Remove from the oven, and the top should look done, but won’t be as springy as a sponge with egg in it. Leave in the tin to cool for a few minutes to firm up a bit, then turn onto a cooling rack. This was quite tricky as the cake didn’t want to leave the tin, even tho the bottom was lined. Do the best you can. I left the lining on the bottom of the second cake as I knew I wouldn’t be able to transfer it to the top of the half iced cake without it

While that is happening, make the fudge icing as in the recipe card

You now need to get the bottom half of the cake onto a flat plate. Again, this was quite tricky and I had to patch it back up when bits fell off. When the cake is barely warm, and the fudge icing is warm, but not so warm that it is still very runny, spread about half the mix onto one cake. Now use the second half with the lining still attached to help you put the second cake on top, remove the lining and spread with the rest of the icing. Bits still fell off the second cake, but at least I could move it. I just splatted them into the icing to glue them in place. If the icing has cooled down so much it has started to harden up, warm it over a gentle flame until it softens.

Cut either cake into 10 pieces

 

Vanilla Sponge Cake

I don’t think I would make a plain vanilla sponge cake with oil instead of butter, so if you want that version, I would use butter/spread, replace the cocoa with extra flour and add a tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Fudge Sauce

The chocolate fudge icing is fabulous as a sauce, just thin it down with a little water, go steady, a tsp at a time, it thins very quickly. Keep it in a jam jar and use it on everything from pancakes to ice cream. Go easy though, it’s all sugar!

Coffee and Walnut Fudge Cake

This is my husbands absolute favourite – add 3tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in half tsp hot water whilst creaming the eggs and sugar. Leave out the cocoa in the icing, make it the same way with some coffee added, taste it for strength. Put 50g walnuts on the top of the cake, chopped or whole, up to you, and 25g between the two cakes

Lemon Fudge Cake

Add the zest and juice of a lemon to the mix whilst creaming. Sandwich with lemon fudge icing or lemon curd and cream

Orange Fudge Cake

As above using an orange. Orange curd if you can get it is delicious, can be made fairly easily

Black Forest Fudge Cake

Use a chocolate sponge and fill with whipped cream and cherries

Fruit and Cream Sponge Cake

Sandwich any variation flavour sponge with whipped cream and a good jam/curd and/or any fruit you like – strawberries, raspberries, apricots, peaches, fresh or tinned, banana, mango, one of those cheap tins of broken mandarins
eg – chocolate sponge, maybe with some orange zest in, sandwiched with cream and mandarins
lemon sponge sandwiched with raspberries and cream
vanilla sponge sandwiched with strawberries and cream – quintessentially English

Baked Sponge

Or, using any of the variations, using half of the cake mix, as a baked sponge. I would use one of my oval pyrex dishes that I use so much, you could put jam, curd, treacle, apples, plums, rhubarb etc etc in the bottom. Bake in a medium oven for about half an hour, or microwave it for 6 minutes. Serve with custard, cream or ice cream