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 choc 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.
4largeeggsseparated, Asda Chefs medium eggs, £3.10/30, 41p
200mlveg oilTesco £1.25/litre, 25p
200gsugar88p/kg, 17p
200gself-raising flour or plain with 2tsp baking powder, 45p value brand/1.5kg, 6p
70gcocoa£2.25/250g, 63p
No egg version
300mlveg oilTesco £1.25/litre, 37p
300gsugar88p/kg, 26p
300gself-raising flouror plain with 2tsp baking powder, 45p value brand/1.5kg, 9p
70gcocoa£2.25/250g, 63p
tblspvinegarany kind except malt or a strong balsamic ( I used distilled white vinegar that was in the cleaning cupboard!)
6tblspwater
Fudge icing
50gbutter£1.20/250g, 24p
3tblspwater
250gicing sugarAsda, 1kg/£1.88, 47p
2tblspcocoa powderAsda £2.28/250g, 32p this must be cocoa, not drinking chocolate which has lots of sugar and milk powder in it and won’t give enough chocolate flavour to your cake.
Whisk the oil and sugar together. Add the egg yolks, beating a little between each one. Use a stand mixer if you have one, or a big bowl and a big wooden spoon.
Whisk the egg white slightly with a fork, not too much, and adding about half an eggs worth at a time, beat them into the mix. Beat a little between each addition. Keep mixing until you have a light and fluffy mixture. Don’t keep going too long as if you mix it too long, something happens to the mixture and it begins to lose volume and go runnier.
Sieve the flour and cocoa together and fold them gently into the eggy 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) and bake for 20 minutes in a fan oven, 25 minutes in a non-fan.
Remove from the oven, the top should be springy. Leave in the tin to cool for a few minutes to firm up a bit, then turn onto a cooling rack
While that is happening, make the fudge icing £1.03
Melt 50g butter (£1.20/250g, 24p) or spread with 3 tbslp water in a saucepan. Sieve 250g icing sugar (Asda, 1kg/£1.88, 47p) and 2tbslps (35g) cocoa powder (Asda £2.28/250g, 32p)- this must be cocoa, not drinking chocolate which has lots of sugar and milk powder in it and won’t give enough chocolate flavour to your cake. And both the icing sugar and the cocoa need sieving as lumps are completely impossible to get out once they are mixed with the melted butter – believe me, I’ve tried. Give the fudge icing a bit of a beating to make it glossy. Leave to cool
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. Put the second cake on top and spread with the rest of the icing. If the icing has cooled down so much it has started to harden up, warm it over a gentle flame until it softens.
Wait impatiently until the cake and icing have firmed up, then have a big wodge, maybe with some ice cream, or maybe still warm or warmed in the microwave for a few seconds. Warning, this has squillions of calories and can’t be fitted into any slimming diet unless you have the slenderest of slices and what fun is that!!!!
Eggless version
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
While that is happening, make the fudge icing as above
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.
Notes
VariationsI 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 extractThe 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.Coffee and Walnut, this is DP’s 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 cakesLemon Fudge – add the zest and juice of a lemon to the mix whilst creaming. Sandwich with lemon fudge icing or lemon curd and creamOrange Fudge – as above using an orange. Orange curd if you can get it is delicious, can be made fairly easily Black Forest – use a chocolate sponge and fill with whipped cream and cherries Fruit and Cream – 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 Englishor, 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 creamGot a great recipe? How about submitting it to appear on Thrifty Lesley!