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01/27/2012 National Chocolate Cake Day Eggless Chocolate Bottle Gourd Cake Using Yogurt with Ovaltine Frosting

Source of Recipe

Eggless Cake Recipes


Recipe Introduction

Today is National Chocolate Cake Day! Cakes have a rich culinary history. In Greece, cakes (or “plakous”) were heavy and flat, and people served them with nuts and honey. The Romans made cakes that were more like cheesecake or pastry, and presented them as offerings to the gods. In Medieval England, people used the words “bread” and cake” interchangeably to refer to anything made with flour dough.A company called O. Duff and Sons pioneered the first boxed cake mix in the late 1920s. In 1947, after years of research and development, General Mills released the first “just add water” Betty Crocker cake mixes. The available flavors were Ginger, Spice, Yellow, and White. In 1948, Pillsbury introduced the first chocolate cake mix.Today, the most popular kind of cake is chocolate. There are many different types, including Black Forest, Devil’s Food, Flourless, Fudge, Ganache, German Chocolate, Lava, and much more.Head to your local bakery or whip up your favorite recipe to celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day! Eggless Chocolate Bottle Gourd Cake Using Yogurt with Ovaltine Frosting from Eggless Cooking

List of Ingredients

HOME COOKIN’ 01/27/2012 National Chocolate Cake Day Eggless Chocolate Bottle Gourd Cake Using Yogurt with Ovaltine Frosting



Cake:
1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
6 tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Unsweetened Applesauce (you could use oil too)
2 tablespoons Canola oil (Only if using applesauce)
1/4 cup Hot Coffee
1/4 cup Milk (Omit it if using Zucchini/Bottlegourd)
1/4 cup Yogurt (I used plain non fat, measured it with dry measuring cup)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 cup Bottle Gourd, grated (Optional. You can use zucchini too)

Frosting:

3 tablespoons Margarine/butter at room temperature (I used Promise, Heart Health)
1 and 1/2 cups Powdered sugar (I used Ovaltine. The one I used did not have eggs in the ingredients list.)
1/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
3-4 tablespoons Fat Free Milk


Recipe



Cake:

Preheat the oven to 325F for 15 minutes. Lightly grease an 8-inch round cake pan and dust it with cocoa powder. Update: I baked this cake before I knew about the parchment paper trick. Since I knew that I haven’t baked a cake without it. Take a sheet of parchment paper, place the pan you want to use on the paper and trace the shape with a pencil. Cut it out. Spray the cake tin with non stick spray, place the parchment cut out and spray it lightly once again.

Grate the bottle gourd/zucchini, if using. After grating I also coarsely chopped it with a knife. Measure 1 cup and transfer it to a bowl. Let the water secrete from the gratings. If using the water you may omit the 1/4 cup of milk later.

In a large bowl sift together the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and sugar. Make a well.

Add all the wet ingredients one by one.

With an electric mixer, beat the mixture on low speed for 2-3 minutes until the dry and wet ingredients are well combined. Do not over beat it.

Add the grated bottle gourd/zucchini, if using. Mix together.

Pour the batter in the prepared pan. Tap the pan a couple of times so the batter is spread evenly and there are no air bubbles.

My cake was ready only around 38 minutes. I think it took longer because it was a dense batter with the whole wheat flour, applesauce and the bottle gourd. So start checking from about 20 minutes, depending upon the ingredients you are using. Toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake should come clean.

Once out of the oven, transfer the pan to a wiring rack to cool. After about an hour remove the cake from the pan and let the cake cool completely before frosting. Update: If you follow the parchment trick, the cake will come out clean just after 15 minutes. This will also avoid excess moisture due to the heat trapped inside the pan.

Frosting:

In a medium size bowl add the margarine, ovaltine (powdered sugar) and cocoa powder. Start beating with an electric mixer on low speed. At this stage it may seem to be very dry. Don’t panic. Wait until you add the milk.

Add milk little by little and continue beating the mixture till you get a nice spreadable consistency. I used around 3 tablespoons of milk.

Now transfer the cake to a plate and start frosting it. I’m very lousy at it. Somehow managed to cover the cake with the frosting. But it was easier this time when compared to my first attempt. The frosting was in the correct consistency.

I saw this technique of using the back of a spoon to create swirls on the frosting. Tried it and I think it looked somewhat close. Create an indentation on the frosting with the back of a spoon close to each other.

I think my cake had too much moisture content because of the milk, hot coffee and the water from the bottle gourd. I think that’s also one of the reasons it took so much time to bake. Also when I removed the cake from the pan I found that it was very wet. I had to use a couple of kitchen paper towels to blot the water. So I also refrigerated the cake for a couple of hours before frosting it. That’s the reason I have mentioned to omit milk if using grated bottle gourd or zucchini.

The recipe for the frosting is from 1001 Low Fat Vegetarian Recipes. The original recipe requires margarine or butter. I didn’t have both. So I used the Promise blend which we have it on our toast. I was worried if it would work or not, but was so excited to see that the frosting came out beautifully.

There are 2 types of Ovaltine available. I used the Ovaltine which is fortified with 8 vitamins and minerals. I used Ovaltine because I didn’t have confectioner’s sugar at home, but in a way it worked out for the best. 4 tablespoons of Ovaltine (ie) 1/4 cup has 15gms sugar whereas the sugar content in 1/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar is 29gms. I checked it in the grocery store. So I think this frosting is even better and healthier than the original one. Even though Ovaltine has lesser sugar content than confectioner’s sugar, I found the frosting was a bit too sweet for my taste. Then imagine how it would have been had I used powdered sugar.

If you are going to try the ovaltine frosting, I would recommend decreasing the quantity of sugar in the cake to even 1/2 cup. I think this cake is a pretty healthy cake but for its sugar content.