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Double Chocolate Cake with Peppermint Chocolate Frosting

How do you make cake with eggs or butter? This pretty layer cake uses a combination of applesauce and baking powder to leaven the layers, and mayonnaise for luxurious richness. The pretty chocolate petals add an elegant finishing touch and are easier than they look to make. Get the recipe:

Released on 12/06/2017


I bet you can't make a chocolate cake

without milk, butter, or eggs.

Challenge accepted.

(funky music)

Chocolate cake is the quintessential

birthday or dinner party dessert,

but how do you make a chocolate cake

without eggs or butter?

Does it sound impossible?

It's totally possible.

Eggs are typically used as a leavener,

instead I'm going to use unsweetened apple sauce

and some baking powder.

And this is a hack that's traditionally

used in some vegan baking.

The apple sauce adds the moisture of the egg

and the baking powder adds the leavening.

I'm gonna whisk that together first

and that's just gonna sort of activate the baking powder.

I wanna add a lot of chocolate flavor to this cake

so I'm gonna use both cocoa powder

and also some nice bittersweet chocolate.

And then I'm gonna add some hot water.

While I'm waiting for that to boil,

I'm gonna add my dry goods together,

so I've got some flower,

I'm gonna add my salt to that,

a little bit more baking powder,

and some baking soda.

Now that I have my hot water,

I'm gonna add it to my chocolate and cocoa powder,

just to melt my chocolate.

Traditionally cake batter is made

by creaming butter and sugar,

but I'm going to be using mayonnaise.

It adds this nice richness

and great texture to your cake.

And I'm using white sugar and

also dark brown sugar for this cake.

The brown sugar adds a little bit of molasses flavor

and for cakes in general I like

to use a combination of both.


That looks nice and smooth and creamy.

So, now I'm gonna add half of that apple sauce,

baking powder egg like mixture that I made.

And that's already sort of gotten fluffy

from the baking powder activating.

And I'm also gonna add a little bit of vanilla.

I'm gonna add the flower

and the chocolate mixture in stages,

and just be careful to do this on low

so you don't make a huge mess in your kitchen.

Have two prepared pans.

They're sprayed with cooking spray

and I have parchment on the bottom of them.

I'm just gonna evenly divide the batter between them.

I'm gonna stick these cakes

into a 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes

and move on to the next step.

Traditionally frosting is made with butter or cream,

and what I'm going to use is coconut oil.

So, I'm gonna take my chocolate,

I'm gonna put it on top of my double boiler

and then I'm gonna add my coconut oil.

I'm also adding a little bit of vanilla

because vanilla makes everything taste better.

And a little salt,

'cause salt also makes everything taste better.

Okay, so this is pretty good to go.

Just gonna whisk in a little bit of water.

I'm basically wanting to let this chocolate

set up into our frosting.

And then I'm gonna add a little bit

of peppermint extract

and that just gives our frosting

a little bit of that Christmasy flavor.

So, to give this cake a really pretty finishing touch,

I'm gonna show you how to make a really cool

chocolate garnish.

So, I'm just gonna take some chocolate on my brush,

and I'm gonna make about a three inch stripe.

We're gonna chill them and then go over

the chocolate again to make them thicker.

You need about three layers of chocolate per tray

and you need about 30 petals for the finished cake.

So, once you've done three layers of chocolate,

we're gonna add our finishing touch,

which is a little bit of peppermint candy.

And now I'm gonna stick these back in the fridge

and let them set up until I'm ready to frost my cake.

The way that I'm gonna get this chocolate sauce

to be a frosting is by chilling and whisking it.

Okay, so my frosting is nice and thick.

You can see that it really looks like frosting now,

which is pretty cool 'cause there's no butter in it.

So, I have my cakes,

they're nice and cool.

I'm just gonna flip them over onto this parchment

so it's easier for me to work with them

and I'm gonna use a small offset spatula

and then you're also gonna wanna have a little spoon.

So, I'm just gonna take a little bit of my frosting,

put that down,

and then I'm gonna put my first layer down

and then I'm gonna place

about a cup and a half of frosting.

So, I'm gonna add some frosting to this top layer

and then I'm gonna take the remaining frosting

and I'm just gonna use the back of my spatula

to coat the sides.

So, once you have the whole cake frosted,

I'm just gonna take my spoon

and add some nice pretty swirls to the top of the cake.

Whenever you feel like it's done,

it's probably done.

So, that's for me,

right now.

Not quite.


So, we have one last thing.

I'm gonna grab our chocolate petals out of the fridge

and finish this cake off.

You can see that they're actually starting

to come off of the parchment paper already

and that's how you kind of know that they're ready to go.

And then I'm just gonna take them and place them

right along the sides.

I think these really add this really pretty,

gorgeous finishing touch.

They are a little bit of extra work,

but for a holiday,

they really add this really gorgeous, elegant look.

So, there you go,

we have a double layer chocolate cake

with no eggs, no butter.

It's super rich and luxurious.

It's delicious and I hope you enjoy making it.

Starring: Katherine Sacks