Goodbaker’s Blog

When life gives you (an economic) depression, look to your ancestors for inspiration. Thanks to my pal Mimi, I have a lot of Vegenaise (vegan mayonnaise), so I veganized this Southern classic recipe for chocolate cake made with mayonnaise in place of butter and eggs. They came out absolutely beautifully. A tender, delicate crumb, no big air pockets, and they rose higher than most other vegan cake recipes I’ve tried.

Ingredients for 1 dozen cupcakes or one 8″ round cake layer:

Dry Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 c. all-purpose white flour
• 6 TB natural cocoa powder (not dutched, if you can help it)
• 1 TB potato starch (or corn starch, tapioca starch, etc)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1  tsp baking powder (look for brands that don’t use aluminum as an ingredient)
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt

Wet ingredients:

• 1/2 c. light-colored sugar (Florida crystals, beet sugar, etc)
• 6 TB vegan mayonnaise (I used Vegenaise, made by Follow Your Heart, with good results — please comment if you try it with other brands, like Nayonnaise)
• 1 TB soft Earth balance or other vegan shortening
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 c. non-dairy milk, like soy milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Sift or whisk together all the dry ingredients, set aside
3. Cream together the first 4 wet ingredients in a large bowl (do not add the milk yet)
4. Add about half of the dry mix to the wet mix, and stir/whisk together just until smooth.
5. Alternately add the remaining dry mix, and the non-diary milk, mixing just until combined each time.
6. Do not overmix. Mix just until combined.
7. Either fill lined cupcake tins halfway (only halfway, they expand), or pour into a greased 8″ round cake pan.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes for cupcakes, or 25 minutes for cake. Test with a toothpick at least 5 min before time is up, and extend baking time as needed depending on your oven.
9. Let rest briefly, then turn out to cool onto a wire rack — if you leave them in the baking pan, they will get gummy.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 12:36 pm and is filed under recipes. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.