Eggless Chocolate Cake - Vegan

This ( the search for the recipe ) started when we were to have some guests from US....one of T's cousin and her family...which included a granddaughter who was allergic to diary...

I had a couple of favourite cakes - one date, and the other chocolate - but both had milk, butter, or eggs or yogurt....so checked the net ...and found this one in all-recipes site...

It is such a simple recipe and yet it turns out into an amazingly delish cake - it is a little chewy sort of brownie type...really liked it...after which I have made it many times - even for regular ( i.e. non allergic ) folks...and everyone has loved it too...

There are some changes that I have made to the original recipe....one is to reduce the sugar...we like ours to be just sweet...not too sweet...sometimes I replace a quarter cup of sugar with brown sugar - that gives it a more caramelised taste...
I also like to reduce the oil - so my standard substitution for that is to skin and grate an apple ( small ) - and then micro it for about 4-5 minutes with a few drops of water till it becomes soft and pulpy...cool and use in the cake batter...this increases the taste, nutritional value besides making it more healthy by reducing the oil...and of course cannot do without some nuts, so chopped walnuts it is...( this is optional and can be omitted )

Eggless Ragi Banana Cake

Eggless Ragi Banana Cake

Recently, I met up with one of my very close friends(D had a great time with you) who was visiting India ( she lives in Dallas US )...and we got to discussing the various grains and cereals and what is good and healthy...and can be used in a lot of our day to day cooking, baking etc...

One of those was amaranth...and while trying to get the Indian name for it we mistakenly referred to it as ragi...then later realised that it is not so...the actual name is rajagira...which is supposed to be very good, considered a superfood.

All this bought to fore my desire to move on to new methods and ingredients in my baking in my quest for a more healthy sweet or dessert...since we have tried unsuccessfully many a time to resist the sweet temptations.

So while browsing for recipes got a few using ragi ( nachani ) flour and was very impressed with a couple of them - one was a chocolate cupcake and the other a banana cake...
The latter won the toss mainly cause I had 3 bananas on verge of going to the bin if not used immediately...but I also wanted to try an eggless version and use sweetened condensed milk which was part of the first recipe....confusing right ....nyways the end result was a combination of parts of both.

Ragi is a cereal which is very nutritious, it is rich in  calcium, has a lot of dietary fibre, has a lot of iron, is a natural relaxant, and a host of other properties...

So after reading the above recipes I was quite keen to try it out - though I was unsure how it would be received by all at home, generally I do not have much takers for my "healthy attempts" ...but this one turned out so amazing - it was soft, delish (even with the reduced sweetness) and one could not make out that it was made without the regular flours...

Date & Walnut Cake (Eggless)

Eggless Date & Walnut Cake

I was so sure that I had already put down this recipe in an earlier post, so decided to run a check on my blog for cakes...to my surprise did not find any entry...What?!?  cannot believe I did not post any cake recipes at all...well that is certainly not the case, so then....duh...guess what? somehow I had not put that down as a label at all, so had to do a more thorough check thru the dessert list and found I did have a chocolate cake down ( one of the many I make regularly )...but no entry for the above date cake - which is an absolutely amazing cake and one of my favourites.
Wondering however did I miss both the label cake in my blog and the post for this date cake...anyway set out to rectify both. 

So here I am, in the process of baking this once more ( this time at a request from hubby )...took some pictures of the final product - sorry do not have any of work in progress cause as I said - did not know that this was not down already in my blog...so anyways the next time maybe I might manage to get that too...

There are a lot of recipes for the same on the net... this one was adapted from one of them - have made the original one too but this is more moist and had a more intense date taste, due to increase in the no. of dates used.

I have passed on the date cake recipe to many and all have loved it, including my friend C who visited us the other day - she had come over for lunch and the dessert for that day was a rice & date kheer ( another recipe I really need to get down here ) - nyways this started her off on a discussion on the date cake - and how simple it is to make and how amazing it turns out, and how all her colleagues and friends with who she has shared the cake and recipe loved it....etc...

All this talk on the date cake made hubby long for it too...and hence the request for it ( not that I need a reason to bake it )...

Oh and did I mention that it is egg less - a boon for when I have to take something across for those of my friends and relatives who are vegetarians ( including C ).

Rave reviews Chocolate cake...in a Microwave

The day after....

Yesterday was my birthday ...and as I mentioned in my post of mocha muffins it was a hectic day of with phone calls, sms'es, FB msgs...and trying to do some special stuff in the kitchen in between all of these...

Then finally it was evening and my entire family got together - we had a great time - every one was eager to sample the baking - so even before the ceremonial cake cutting - the mocha muffins were disappearing quickly...it was proclaimed a success ( or maybe everyone was hungry.....no no it was truly amazing )...

Then came the cake...well what do I say...first of all the 'rave reviews part'  in the title ...they all come from my family - so you may think that they are biased...but you do not know my family...they do not hesitate to call a spade a spade...so if they like this - it has to be gooooood.....

Everyone was waiting eagerly...and finally the cake was  cut and served to all....my husband was eager to capture everyone's picture - so while I was serving or feeding the cake - he kept telling us "aam juyo", in gujarati it means "look here" - so that we could look into the camera for his shots....and the entire crowd being South Indian ( my side of the gang )...they all started saying "aam juyo" to each other and slowly the "aam" changed to "mango" - aam in Hindi means mango - the fruit...
So while T was taking the photos - everyone was calling out "mango juyo"...it was more funny then ...over there...and no ...there were no spirits involved......just high spirits :-)

Anyways ...the cake slowly disappeared too (after the mocha muffins )...& was proclaimed a big success too....
I have baked this many times - and had it appreciated by all...but somehow till date I have not had a chance to post this recipe...not sure why ...
So decided to do it...did not take any pictures of the said cake (too busy with all the phone calls I think ) - other than at cutting time...but had taken a picture of the cake made at an earlier time and have posted that here to give you all a glimpse too...this one did not have walnuts on top unlike the one made yesterday but never mind you get the idea.