My another successful baking experience with Taste of Home's recipe! I had bookmarked this apple cake recipe quite a while ago and got the chance to try it recently and it was a super duper hit. The original recipe by itself is egg free and vegan but I made some healthy changes.
I decided to use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour, reduced the quantity of oil and substituted some of it with unsweetened applesauce and the result was a very moist, delicious and guilt free vegan cocoa apple cake.
This recipe is quite similar to the whacky vegan chocolate cake except for the fact that we are using lemon juice instead of vinegar. This is my first experience with lemon juice as an egg substitute and I was not sure what to expect but was super excited after tasting the cake because it was so soft and light.
I was quite unsure about the quantity of lemon juice because I have read that 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of baking soda can be used to replaced 1 egg and that vinegar can be substituted with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and this recipe uses only 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. I was going back and forth about using 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon but finally decided to follow the original recipe itself and was completely satisfied with the apple cake.
Recently I baked a peanut butter quick bread with whole wheat flour and it tasted yucky and I had to throw it away just like that. I don't know if its the brand of whole wheat flour or the recipe. So I'm not sure how this recipe would turn out with plain whole wheat flour as against whole wheat pastry flour.
So if you don't have whole wheat pastry flour go with all purpose flour itself as mentioned in the original recipe. Regular whole wheat flour doesn't work well in all recipes. But I have to mention that my bottle gourd chocolate cake came out very well with whole wheat flour. That was a different brand of flour, so I guess its the brand that makes the difference.
If you tried this Vegan Cocoa Apple Cake recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
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Recipe
Vegan Cocoa Apple Cake
Ingredients
- 1 and ½ cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- ¼ cup Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Water
- ¼ cup Unsweetened Applesauce (dry measuring cup)
- 1 tablespoon Oil (I used canola)
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice freshly squeezed
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Apples Peeled, Cored & Diced into small pieces
- ¾ cup Granulated Sugar (See My Notes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C for 15 Mins. Lightly grease and line the cake tin with parchment paper. Spray the paper with non stick cooking spray as well.
- In a medium size bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Break the lumps in baking soda if any and mix it well with the flour.
- In another bowl mix together the water, applesauce, oil, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry mixture and stir until just moistened.
- Fold in the apples and sugar into the batter and pour it in the prepared pan.
- Bake it for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. I checked mine after 30 minutes and it was done perfectly.
Vandana says
Hi, thanks for the recipe. I tried it with WW flour and it still came out good.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Vandana. Please do rate the recipe when you find time.
momchef says
hi Madhuram:
I plan to make this next week for my wedding ann. Can i substitute Pastry flour (which I dont have) with a mix of APF and wholewheat atta?
Pls do let me know
thx
Madhuram says
Sure.
Devi says
Hi !! i cannot find Unsweetened Applesauce can you please tell me what can i replace it with and even how can i prepare applesauce??
Thank looking forward for your reply .
Madhuram says
Peel, chop and cook apples in little water either in microwave oven or stove top. Puree it smoothly once cooled. Your applesauce is ready.
Moco says
Hi! I tried this cake today, everything went well except it needs more sweetness in it. I didn't know that it needed more sugar. So I just put icing on it.
Thanks.
Madhuram says
I guess you missed that in the Notes. Thanks for trying the recipe.
Dipika says
Hi Madhuram,
I love the concept of eggless baking. I am thoroughly making use of your website 🙂
Really helps me prepare recipes instantly at anytime. very handy website..Appreciate it !!
I see some of the recipes need apple sauce. Can I use orange marmalade instead?
-Dipika
Madhuram says
Thanks Dipika. I think you will be able to use it if you try liquifying it a little bit but the baked goods might have an orange flavor to it.
Rathi says
I just made these today and after reading the reviews, tweaked the recipe. I added 1 cup sugar and the sweetness was perfect and made and baked them as cupcakes. As I did not have wholewheat flour , I used 1 cup of chapathi flour and 1/2 cup of wholemeal flour. They came out pretty good. Am looking forward to trying out your other recipes too.
Madhuram says
Thanks for the feedback Rathi.
Madhuram says
Thanks for trying the recipe Rathi.
Allen Davis says
Thank you for publishing these eggless recipes. I have been trying to stay away from eggs because I need to keep my Cholestrol down.
lakshmi says
Hello madhuram:
You picture loks amazing and hence i tried it for my sisters birth day. I followed the ecipe to the T but it did not come out well. the cake was undercooked and i could taste the batter
Neela says
Hi,
I was just looking for cake recipes, and I came across this
website. [www.blog.fatfreevegan.com] I have not tried the recipes
but worth looking at it. (In google also you can search
(fatfreevegankitchen) - sinlessly deliciously same site.)
Chocalate-Orange Cake recipe seems interesting or worth
experimenting.
Neela
priya says
Tried this cake twice.The first time it came out well.The second time it was more of a brownie...don't know what went wrong.Will have to try it again.Wanted to share my feedback.Thanks.
Neela says
Hi Madhuram,
Any suggestions for diabetic say if a recipe uses 1 cup sugar what
are other alternatives in a cake or cookie recipes. Please let me
know. Thanks.
Madhuram says
Maybe you can try it with Splenda. It can be used measure to measure of sugar.
Neela says
Madhuram:
Thank you for the response.
I wish you would have tab for diabetic recipes in the future.
Neela
Rupa says
Hi Madhu,
I made this cake yesterday, but it ddint come out well.
I followed the recipe exactly ...dont know wat went wrong.
The outcome was more like a Brownie than a cake.
To start with the batter was very thick and so the cake / brownie was very very very chewy. There was not enough moisture either. I put 1 cup sugar and still it tasted very low on the sweet side. and so i made a vanilla frosting.
- Rupa
Yojana says
I made this cake over the long weekend.. I actually made cupcakes
and the recipe yielded 13 cupcakes.. I used just 1/4 cup brown
sugar and 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp normal sugar.. The cupcakes
turned very good, but i wouldn't have mind a lil more sugar.. So I
frosted the cupcakes following your buttercream icing recipe..
This was the first time I tried frosting and had fun decorating them
thanks for your recipes...
Aarthy says
I tried this recipe today with little more sugar like you suggested
and it came out great!!Now, I am excited to try more of your
egg less recipes. Thanks 🙂
Madhuram says
Thanks for trying the recipe Aarthy.
Vera says
Today I tried this cake and its very delicious! I didn't have applesauce, so I used butter instead. It needed around 45-50 minutes to be cooked though. All in all, I am thrilled to find this site. My hubby doesn't eat eggs and this site is a lifesaver for me. Thx!
Madhuram says
Thanks Vera.
WorkingMaa says
Hi Madhuram,
I love your recipes ! I have tried a few of them and they turn out great ! I have mentioned your site in my blog and I hope the word spread as far as possible ! Thanks for this great work ..
-- WorkingMaa
Madhuram says
Thank you very much WorkingMaa.
asha says
Madhu what brand and where do I get the whole wheat pastry flour.
Madhuram says
I think Bob Red Mill, Arrow Heads Mill and King Arthur sells it. But I was not able to find any of these while I lived in US. Here I'm fortunate to have a bulk store nearby which sells a lot of specialty flours.
vegan says
hi madhuram....
I just moved back to India.....how can applesauce be replaced...?
can whea flour be used instead of pastry flour?
thanks for helping
Madhuram says
You can prepare applesauce at home. Just peel and cut apples; add little water and either cook it on stove top or in a microwave oven and puree it once it is cool enough and your homemade applesauce is ready. Try using all purpose flour and whole wheat flour in 1:1 ratio instead of whole wheat pastry flour.
Garima says
Hi ,
This is the first recipe I am trying from your website. I love your recipes!I have a question. Do you use the large oven (the one underneath the USA gas stoves) or the small kitchen counter oven??
Thanks,
Garima
Shibani says
Congratulation and glad to hear the news. We made this cake and it was great and very moist. Thanks for sharing and take care
Marilyn says
I should add that I have discovered that if you grease a ceramic coated cast iron pan or stone muffin pans and then heat them in the oven, muffins and cakes don't stick. Then you're not getting chemicals from spray on cooking oils.
I heartily recommend pans from Mario Batali and Le Creuset (Mario's are half the price though) and stone bakeware from Hartstone.