Recipes such as shortbread or crumbles tend to be naturally egg-free treats. It can be more difficult to get a good birthday cake or bun recipe if you have to cut eggs out of your baking. A friend gave me this egg-free recipe for chocolate cake when I had to make a cake for a relative with an allergy. I was surprised at the amount of baking powder but trusted my friend as she is an avid baker, it worked well and the cake stayed nice and moist due to the beetroot. Egg-free cakes can often be dry but I find this one less so.
Tarts are another good egg-free option as the pastry can be made without egg quite easily. You can fill it with whichever fruit you like but I opted for an apple tart with some raisins and cinnamon.
Eggs add structure in baking by adding height and helping cakes to rise, so opting for a recipe that does not need to rise too much is the best option when creating egg-free delights, an egg-free sponge will always be more challenging than an egg-free short bread cookie for example. Eggs also bind ingredients together so your egg-free cake may be a little more crumbly and will need extra care coming out of the tin.
- 235g plain flour
- 3 tsp caster sugar
- 115g cold butter, cubed
- 3 tbs cold water – approximately
- 4 large cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
- 20g golden raisins
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbs maple syrup
- ½ tbs milk
Mix the flour and caster sugar together. Rub in the cold cubes of butter until the mixture looks like rough breadcrumbs. Use the water to bring the dough together. You just need enough so that the dough forms a ball but is not sticky. Wrap the dough in parchment and allow to cool in the fridge for at least an hour.
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and line the base of a 9-inch tart tin with parchment. Grease and flour the edges.
Toss the apple slices and raisins in the maple syrup and cinnamon, set aside.
Roll your pastry to about 3mm in thickness and cut a disc bigger than your tart tin. Gently sit the disc into the tin and allow it to fall into place. Do not stretch it too much as this will lead to it shrinking during baking.
Roll another disc to top the apple tart and set it aside.
Place the apple mixture into the pastry case and lay the pastry disc on top. Brush the edges of the tart base with milk and seal the top and base by pinching around the edges. Make a slit in the centre of the tart and bake for about 35 minutes until the pastry is golden and the mixture inside is bubbling.
- 275g self-raising flour
- 160g golden caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder, sieved
- 50g cold butter, cubed
- 50mls light olive oil
- 160mls water
- the zest of 3 lemons and the juice of half a lemon
- 2tbs poppyseeds
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Line a 1lb loaf tin with parchment.
Mix the flour, caster sugar and baking powder together. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like rough breadcrumbs. Add in the oil, water, zest and lemon juice and beat the mixture until combined. Stir in the poppyseeds.
Scoop the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Once cool enough to handle transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- 50g cocoa powder
- 100mls light olive oil
- 160g muscovado sugar
- 200g self raising flour
- 175g boiled and mashed beetroot
- 1 tbs baking powder, sieved
- 200g natural yogurt
- a generous pinch of sea salt
- 220mls cream
- 220g dark chocolate, broken into small even pieces
Preheat your oven to 160 degrees and line an 8-inch round cake tin with parchment.
Place all of the cake ingredients into a large bowl and combine completely.
Scoop the cake batter into your prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Once cool enough to handle remove the cake from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.
To make the ganache heat the cream until it is shivering. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate pieces until melted. Allow to cool to room temperature. Scoop the mixture into a mixer and whisk until the colour lightens and plenty of air is added.
Gently slice the cooled cake in the centre so you have two discs. Spread the whipped ganache on top of one disc and sandwich the cake back together. Top the cake with the rest of the ganache.
