Egg Free Cake Help..

[Kendra AU]

I made 2 cakes this weekend.. the guys thing I've gone insane, but have enjoyed every minute of it.

I helped Morgan make a cake on Friday afternoon for Nan's birthday. I can't have eggs, so we subbed the eggs with egg substitute in a box {it's mostly potato something or other}. The recipe should also have had baking soda & baking powder. I was out of the later & did not have the right supplies to make my own so upped the soda. Taste wise the cake was fine, but it was flat thus a wee bit heavy in my opinion. No one complained. In fact the guys polished it off with my box of strawberries in no time flat.

Sunday we had company over for another impromptu birthday gathering for Nan. I whipped up the same cake again, without b. powder still, but with eggs. The cake was light & fluffy. I risked it & had a piece yesterday & another today. My throat feels funky & my ear aches like the dickens, which are two of the many signs I get when I eat something I'm not suppose to.

How the heck can I make a cake light & fluffy without eggs?!?! I don't eat grains half the time because I'm hit or miss with a variety of them, & every coconut flour/almond flour recipe uses heaps of eggs too. So, for starters I wanna know how to make one with regular flour light & fluffy.. or at least not flat. What do you use?!

[Angela Rose]

Hey Kendra,
We eat eggs, but my MIL is allergic and so I was very careful not to give the kids eggs untill they were at least a year and after they had their one year immunizations per the Dr's advice.

Anyway, this is the cake I used for their birthdays. It is chocolate, but not super-chocolatey. I wouldn't say the cake is dense, but I would say that it is less fluffy than a nice sponge cake. I got the recipe from my mom and she said it was really popular in the 70s. I think the vinegar and the soda help give the cake lift. Also the vinegar taste is hidden by the bitter cocoa powder. I know you try to avoid sugar so you will have to make a substitution there.

Anyway, here it is
Crazy Cake

3 c. a-p flour
2 c. sugar
1/3 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbs. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. oil (my mom uses canola, I use melted coconut oil)
2 c. cold water.

Put all dry ingredients into s sifter and sift into a greased 9"X13" cake pan. Make 3 holes in the sifted mixture. Put 2Tbs. vinegar in one, 1 tsp. vanilla in second and 3/4 c. oil in last. Pour 2 C. cold water over all; mix well with a fork. Bake at 350F for 30-35 min.

My mom's notes: Mixing in the cake pan etc. makes it "crazy." However, I 've seen the same recipe with directions to mix in a bowl. Stir dry ingredients first, then the liquid. MIx with electric mixwer or wire wisk. Just don't overbeat.

[TonyaP]

Baking powder contains the soda plus an activator. In baking powder both the soda and the activator are combined. When just using soda, you need something else and the egg serves this function. So it may be that it was your lack of powder, rather than the egg that was your issue. The second go round, the egg was able to do the job of the powder.

Soda pop can be used rather than egg to make a cake fluff up.

Just and FYI, depending on what you are baking, the egg will either serve as a binder, a leavener, or both. When I'm just subbing for a binder I use apple sauce. I think I usually use baking powder or soda pop as my leavening agent. (I seldom bake so I can't remember. )

Here are some official tips:
http://www.foodallergy.org/page/egg-allergy

Throat issues- be careful!

[CINDY LB OH]

We have this same Crazy Cake recipe that came with my dh

This is the only cake his mom made when they were growing up, and she still makes it when people come over to the house.

It's very good, and even good without frosting. I made it more when we were first married, but not very much now. It's very moist.

Also, you can substitute milled flax seed for eggs as well. I use the Hodgson Mill brand. I was out of eggs when I started whipping up some banana bread and subbed the flax seed in. It turned out great. A slightly denser bread, but it still rose up nicely. The box says "1 TBsp. milled flax seed plus 3 TBsp. water can replace 1 egg."

[Kendra AU]

Yeah, when it's just a binder I have no issues, it's when it's a leavener I have a problem. I did consider using vinegar the other day, but didn't. I need to play in the kitchen... the guys would be incredibly delighted.