Last month I was on a shopping spree at Michael's for Christmas baking and gift supplies and couldn't resist the temptation to buy the Wilton's Checkerboard cake pan set. I was taking it off the rack, then putting it back and again doing it back and forth and my husband couldn't stand it anymore and he put it in the cart. My immediate thought was, I will bake a beautiful eggless checkerboard cake for my mom's birthday in January, so it's really worth the price.
And January came and the date was nearing and I was sort of hesitant to use it. More like worried if it would turn out right, or will I mess it up, should I get a stand-by cake. My mom's birthday is very important to me because we don't get to spend it together each year. She lives in India and myself here in Canada. The last time we celebrated it together was in 2011. I bake the eggless layered chocolate cake. So this birthday of hers was very special to me and didn't want to screw it.
But did proceed with it anyways...because you know how moms are! They don't mind a not so perfect looking cake, they are so forgiving. So it was going to be an egg free checkerboard cake for her 61st birthday.
Now the next part of the deliberation was the recipe. Which recipe I'm going to follow for the base? The checkerboard pan set comes with instructions and it mentions to use 10 cups of batter or 3 packets of cake mix for 3 color variations and 2 cake mixes for 2 color checkerboard cake.
I wanted to make a tricolor checkerboard cake. There was an idea for Valentine's Day theme on the box of the pan set and decided to do something like that.
I had to use 3 packs of white cake mix for that. I have baked an eggless vanilla cake using cake mix few years back. I had used yogurt as an egg substitute. I really don't remember how the texture and taste was. This time I chose to use my winning egg substitute combination of yogurt and pureed silken tofu. It has worked out beautifully in many recipes of mine, especially the eggless strawberry cream cake recipe which I'm very proud of.
And I couldn't have guessed it better because you know what? The cake turned out absolutely moist, soft and delicious. It is really the best combination and winning combination for cakes.
As for the appearance of the checkerboard cake, I wouldn't say it was picture perfect. Managed to get some neat slices and checks but have a long way to go get it 100% right. The taste, of course, I have no complaints at all. One of the best egg free vanilla cake recipe using a cake mix!
Recipe
Eggless Checkerboard Cake
Ingredients
- 3 packets white cake mix I used Betty Crocker white cake mix (18.25oz)
- ¾ cup pureed silken tofu
- ¾ cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup oil any oil of your choice
- 3 and ¾ cups milk or water, I used 2%
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- A few drops Red and pink food colors
Buttercream Frosting
- 1 and ½ cups unsalted butter
- 4 cups confectioner’s sugar (can to increase it upto 5 cups)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- A few drops pink food color
Instructions
- Set out 3 large bowls. Empty each cake mix into each bowl and make a well
- Let's prepare the cake batter for the first layer. To the first bowl of cake mix add, ¼ cup of pureed silken tofu, ¼ cup of yogurt, ⅓rd of a cup of oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 and ¼ of milk. Beat well with electric hand held beater. The batter should be smooth. Now we have the cake batter ready for one layer of cake.
- Repeat the above for the remaining 2 packets of cake mix too.
- To the first bowl of cake batter add few drops of pink color and beat well. Add more food color if needed. Wash the beaters and then repeat the same for the 2nd color.
- To the second bowl of cake batter add few drops of red color and beat well with clean beaters so that the pink color from the first bowl doesn't mix with this red color. Use red gel paste if you want to get nice red color batter.
- The third bowl of cake batter will be left white.
- Now follow the instructions given with the checkerboard pan set to fill the batter. As always line the pans with parchment paper and fill it ⅔rds full of batter. Use a ladle/spoon to fill in the batter because the dividers that come with the pan are tricky to be filled with the batter.
- The remaining batter was enough to make 24 mini cupcakes.
- Preheat the oven at 350F/180C.
- I placed 2 pans on the top rack and the 3rd on the middle rack. Halfway through the baking brought the top shelf ones to the middle and the middle one to the top, so that the cakes would bake evenly. It was quite tricky to move it. Use a good oven mitt in both hands and be careful.
- Bake it for about 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the pan comes out clean and also watch out for the cake pulling off from the sides of the pan. Mine was ready in about 32 minutes.
- Baking time for the cupcakes would be around 12 minutes.
- Remove the pans from the oven and place it on wire racks to cool completely.
- After about 10-15 minutes remove the cake out of the pan and let it cool completely before you can frost.
Frosting:
- In a large bowl beat together the butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and few drops of pink food color and a teaspoon or more milk if needed, to get a spreadable consistency. Start with 4 cups of sugar and gradually increase it if needed.
- Level the cakes to cut off the dome. Then proceed to frost each layer as usual and cover it up with the frosting.
- Decorate the cake as you please. This time I got the idea of using a big heart shaped cookie cutter in the middle of the top layer of the cake and fill it with red sprinkles and line it with edible silver balls. That's what I did and it looked all pretty and Valentine's Day themed.
My Notes
- You can also choose to use vegan buttercream frosting or vegan cream cheese frosting for this cake recipe.
- I have not calculated the nutritional information for this cake recipe because it's tricky because we are not using the entire cake mix packets to bake the 3 layers. Also there is batter leftover after baking the 3 layers. The remaining batter yields about 2 dozen mini cupcakes.
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Kristen says
Thank you for responding. Yes, I would like to use this cake batter as a base for a 9x12 inch with three layers, but I'm unsure how much silken tofu and yogurt to use. I'm unsure how much cake mix to use also. Thank I really do appreciate you taking the time to reply.
Kristen says
Thank you for this recipe... I need to make a birthday cake that has three layers. How would much ingredients would I need for a 9x12 inch cake tin and for how long would I need to bake it for? Do you feel the texture is better with the silken tofu? Thank for your advice 🙂
Madhuram says
Which recipe are you talking about Kristen? Do you want to make three layers with a 9x12 inch cake?
Kristen says
I used this as a base for my son's birthday cake and it turned out wonderful....wouldn't have know it was egg less. Everyone loved it! Thanks
Madhuram says
Thank you very much Kristen.