My mother was visiting us and I was lucky enough to have her with me for her birthday after 7 years. Another reason this birthday was very special because this was the first time I was going to bake her a birthday cake. So this cake had to be something very special. She loves chocolate and I wanted to bake a decadent chocolate layer cake to celebrate this special occasion.
I already have an eggless chocolate layer cake in the blog. You may know it as the "I can't believe it's chocolate cake" recipe. It's one of the most tried recipes in the blog with top reviews too. But that chocolate cake has only 2 layers. I wanted to make something big, a multiple chocolate layered cake.
That's when I found a moist chocolate layered cake recipe in a magazine. This cake has 4 layers. Even though it looks like you have to spend a lot of time making it, this is a simple chocolate layer cake recipe. It looked pretty easy and used only 2 eggs, so substitution was not a big issue.
I used homemade applesauce recipe in place of the eggs. Unlike the other cake recipe which uses oil for the fat, this chocolate layered cake calls for butter making it a very moist, rich and delicious cake.
Just one caution though, this one is super duper tasty, so don't blame me if you indulge and gain some pounds.
To make a vegan chocolate layer cake, substitute the butter with vegan butter like Earth Balance and for the buttermilk use non-dairy milk and vinegar.
If you tried this Eggless Chocolate Layer Cake recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
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Recipe
Eggless Chocolate Layer Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
- ¾ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 and ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 and ¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ¾ cup Unsalted Butter at room temperature
- ¾ cup Granulated Sugar
- ¾ cup Brown Sugar lightly packed
- ½ cup Unsweetened Applesauce
- ½ tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 and ½ cups Buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Ingredients For Frosting:
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter at room temperature
- 225 grams Unsweetened Chocolate chopped and melted
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 6 cups Icing Sugar
- ½ cup Milk
- ¼ cup Water or Milk or Strong Coffee
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F/160C for 15 minutes. Line two 9 inch round cake pans with parchment paper and grease it lightly with non stick cooking spray.
- Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl. Stir until mixed.
- Beat butter with sugars in a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium for about 3 minutes.
- Add the applesauce in two additions, beating well and scraping down sides of bowl after each addition. Mix in the vinegar too. The mixture will look curdled but don't worry.
- Beat in vanilla.
- Reduce speed and beat one third of flour mixture into butter mixture, then add half the buttermilk.
- Repeat additions, scraping down sides until well mixed.
- Divide batter evenly between pans and smooth tops. Tap the pans lightly to burst air pockets if any.
- Bake in center of oven until a tooth pick inserted in center of cakes comes out clean, 25 to 30 min. If using two racks, move the pan from the top rack to the bottom and the vice-versa in about 15 minutes.
- Cool in pans on a rack for 10 minutes.
- Run a knife around inside edge of each pan and then turn cakes out onto rack.
- Remove parchment. Let cool completely, about 1 hour. I actually left it overnight before I could frost the cake.
For Icing:
- Beat butter for icing in a large bowl, using an electric mixer/hand beater on medium, until creamy, 1 min.
- Add melted chocolate, vanilla, salt and 1 cup icing sugar. Beat for 1 minute.
- With mixer on medium-low, add remaining sugar in 3 parts, alternating remaining liquids (milk and coffee) and ending with sugar.
- Beat on medium-high, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until fluffy and smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.
Frosting the cake:
- Be extremely careful while slicing each cake into half because its very delicate. One of my layers actually split in half and I somehow managed to patch it up and used it as the bottom most layer and covered it with the frosting. I think shrink wrapping the 2 cakes with plastic wrap once it has cooled completely and storing it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours will harden it up a little bit and slicing it into half won't be much of a trouble.
My Notes
Nutrition
(Note: This recipe was updated & republished from the archives)
Ran says
This is a great recipe 🙂 But I have a question: Instead of cocoa powder for the cake, Can I use real chocolate?
Madhuram says
Maybe you could use milk instead of buttermilk to try melting the chocolate in it. If you use semi-sweet chocolate the you would have to adjust the quantity of sugar too.
Ran says
That's a gret idea. 🙂 thank you 😀
vibhuti says
can i add chocolate and cocoa powder both?
How much should be the quantity of chocolate and cocoa powder,I am planning to use unsweetened chocolate.
Thanks,
Vibhuti
Madhuram says
Do you mean melting unsweetened chocolate squares?
Madhuri says
Hi Madhuram, actually thanks for this fab recipe. It was super tasty. My kids love it. Thanks.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Madhuri.
rk says
Is it possible to substitute brown sugar with castor sugar and the vinegar with lemon juice?
Madhuram says
Yes, you should be fine.
rk says
Thank you 🙂
K says
Is there a substitute for apple cider vinegar? As I am not a vegan Will it hurt if I use milk in the recipe to make it moist or will it make it soggy? Also, can castor/icing sugar substitute brown sugar ( I personally don't like the flavour)?
Madhuram says
You could omit the vinegar and use castor sugar instead of brown sugar, but not icing sugar. I think one of the readers has mentioned in the comments section that the cake turned out great even without it. Are you thinking of using milk instead of buttermilk? I think it should be fine.
Faith says
Just put this in the oven to bake. I forgot to add the 3/4 cup brown sugar 🙁 When i read beat butter and sugars (i missed reading the s in sugars) I hope it comes out well.
Matt says
This is a very good recipe. I tried it exactly except for the apple sauce --I replaced it with grated pear, which did the job. The cake did not grow much, but turned out to be a quite moist and delicious brownie. As regards the frosting, on the other hand, 6 cups of icing sugar and 1 cup of butter made the cake way too sweet and fat. If I make this cake again (which is very likely), I will use only half of these or may try my own cream/frosting.
Madhuram says
Thanks for the feedback Matt. I actually don't remember if the frosting was too sweet for us. I guess the 6 cups of sugar was used to balance the bitterness from the coffee for the mocha frosting.
Isha says
Hi Madhuram,
I am a vegetarian. I was skeptical if this recipe would turn out so well when I tried it first. But it's so delicious and yummy. So soft and chocolaty. My brother and I are addicted to it. My brother just loves this cake. He thinks its better than the popular "Monginis cake". And he is the kind of person who is very hard to please. My 7 yr old cousin loved this so much that she wanted this cake for her birthday. This is my first baking experience. I always thought baking a cake like this must be so difficult. But you make everything look so easy. Thank you. Lots of love 🙂
Madhuram says
You have made my day Isha. Thank you very much for trying the cake and the feedback.
Soumya says
Hi, what can I use instead of the applesauce? Please give me a good substitute or give me the recipe to make it. We don't seem to find it in India. Thanks.
Madhuram says
This is my recipe for Homemade Applesauce.
Soumya says
Thanks Madhuram. I actually saw the user comments much later and found the recipe. But thanks very much for your prompt response.
Please can you also provide some recipes for muffins and cakes with whole wheat flour and that too eggless!! As i would like my kids have healthy cakes made out of wheat and not maida. If you already have some recipes on your site. Pls. let me know.Ah! and a second question..is your FAQ page already on the site?? as i did not find it. Please send me the URL.
Thanks once again to make baking easier....
Regards
Soumya
Madhuram says
You're welcome Soumya. FAQ page has been long pending. I wish I can get to it quite soon because I keep answering the same questions very often. Until then we have a new recipes by ingredients page now, so you can look for recipes using whole wheat and whole wheat pastry flour. http://www.egglesscooking.com/recipe-index-by-ingredients/
Deepa says
Awesome Cake. Made for my friends B'day and it was a super Hit.
Madhuram says
Thanks for trying the recipe Deepa. Please rate the recipe.
rb says
Hi ,
I loved the website and tried this cake yesterday for my parents anniversary. They loved it and the cake tasted amazingly good. But I did just 2 layers of frosting instead of 4 ( personal taste as we dont like a lot of frosting) and it was YUM! But my cake was crumbling a lot after we had cut the cake, although I cooled the cake for almost a day before frosting it! Could something have gone wrong? I believe I followed the recipe as is.
Madhuram says
Thanks for trying the recipe RB. One of the many reasons for cakes crumbling is that you might have over mixed the batter. This results in incorporating too much air making the cake very light and fluffy, thereby makes it to crumble.
Tina says
Hi,
Wanted to ask you did you do the icing n frosting
in this recipe.OR You have done either of that
How did you do that?Frosting is done on top of the cake n icing is done inside the layer of the cake.Let me know.
THANKS.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Tina. I just prepared one frosting and used it to fill it between the layers and frost the cake too. Actually icing and frosting are used interchangeably, but technically icing is for cookies and frosting is for cakes and sometimes a different "filling" (like jam spreads, mousse, etc) is used in between the layers of the cake which is not the frosting itself. But most of the time the frosting and filling are the same to keep it simple.
Tina says
Hi,
The cake looks yummy will try this but before that wanted to ask you what do you mean by Unsweetened Applesauce & Apple Cider Vinegar.Are these 2 things easily available in the market. If I use white vinegar is it ok. please let me know. thanks.
Madhuram says
Unsweetened applesauce and apple cider vinegar are both available in all grocery stores in US and Canada. Applesauce is available in big jars as well as in snack size containers. Get the latter because the one in jar turns bad quite quickly. You can also make it at home by following this method: http://www.egglesscooking.com/2011/07/01/homemade-applesauce-recipe/
You can also use white vinegar but sometimes I feel that white vinegar gives an after taste/smell to the baked goods. It could be just me too. Try it for yourself and see which one you like better.
Tina says
Hi,
Thanks a lot for your help and suggestion.
Will definately mail u back once I make the cake.
Sonia says
hi,
can i use store bought frosting for the cake? running out of time, so will not be able to do it all. please let me know asap. planning to prepare tomorrow for my frnd's b'day. thanks.
Madhuram says
You can Sonia.
Vidula says
Hi,
Can I replace the sugar with maple syrup? I want to make this for my son's first birthday but I'm keeping him away from refined sugar.
Thanks.
Madhuram says
You can try it Vidula. Maybe you could use 3/4 cup of maple syrup and 3/4 cups of buttermilk instead of 1 and 1/2 cups mentioned in the original recipe.
M says
This is very tasty. I have been substituting sour cream for half of the applesauce for a truly decadent cake. I have been making the cake in cupcake form. From one recipe I get 20-24 cupcakes. I bake them at 325 for about 22 minutes. My daughter is allergic to eggs, and so I have been on the look-out for a great eggless recipe. Thanks to you, I finally found it!
Madhuram says
Those are some interesting changes you have made M. Thanks for trying the recipe. Please do rate the recipe when you find time.
Divya says
Hi
I've been reading your posts for a few months now.Your recipes are really good.
I tried this chocolate lake.It was unbelievably moist.But one thing I would like to suggest is to reduce the liquid/wet ingredients say buttermilk by 1/4 cup and also the amount of baking soda & bak.powder a little bit.
This way,the cake would retain its moistness but would be easy to slice/cut
Madhuram says
Thanks for the suggestion Divya. Hope I'll be able to try this recipe again with those changes.
varsha says
hi
please advise what we can use instead of the applesauce or the silken tofu as we do not get it here in south africa..
i would like to try this receipe..
thanks
Madhuram says
You can make applesauce at home Varsha. Check this recipe: http://www.egglesscooking.com/2011/07/01/homemade-applesauce-recipe/
Marg says
Thank you so much for this recipe. I made this cake a few days ago and it has been a huge success with all who tasted it. My mother felt left out as she doesn't like chocolate cake so I was wondering if a vanilla version could be made by replacing the cocoa with more flour and baking powder, and the brown sugar with more white?
Madhuram says
Thanks Marg. That doesn't work. I have tried that in another recipe and the cake ended up being very dense and floury. Try some other white cake recipes I have in the blog. http://www.egglesscooking.com/eggless-baking-recipes/eggless-cake-recipes/