Eggless Chocolate Yogurt Cake Recipe (With Easy Chocolate Frosting)

My favourite chocolate cake recipe has yogurt in it. What it also has is a bunch of other ingredients that I don’t always have in hand (milk powder, really?). This long weekend, I was craving home made cake so bad that I had to get cracking with the limited ingredients I had.

The 3 eggs we had in the fridge were used up for breakfast with toast. What I did have in abundance is yogurt. I am nothing if not a good wife to a Tamil Brahmin, making sure his beloved thayir sadam is always just 5 mins away.

Eggless Chocolate Yogurt Cake
Makes about 12 pieces

What I Used:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar (add 1/4 cup more if not using frosting)
1/2 cup plain yogurt / curd
1/4 cup butter
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt if using unsalted butter

How I Made It:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180 C. Grease a medium cake pan and set aside.

2. Sift together flour, salt (if using), cocoa powder and baking powder or just mix well in a bowl until combined well. Mix sugar and butter at room temperature. Beat well until frothy (2-3 mins on an electric mixer, 7-8 mins by hand using a whisk).

3. Once frothy, add yogurt and vanilla. Mix well.

4. Fold in the flour mixture until just combined. The batter will be a bit thick, its supposed to be that way, don’t worry.

5. Transfer batter to the greased tray and bake for 45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool completely and frost if required.

Easy Chocolate Frosting Recipe

Once I made the cake and tried the first slice, I realised its not sweet enough. I whipped up this frosting very quickly to make it a bit sweeter and it worked well.

Here’s how:

Take a large piece of semi sweet chocolate – about 4 oz – (or use 1/4 cup chocolate chips) and add 1 tbsp butter to it. Melt in the microwave in 30 second intervals until completely melted. Add 1 tbsp icing sugar to this and mix well. If the mixture is too thick, add milk by the teaspoon. I didn’t need to.

PS: If you don’t have a microwave, melt the chocolate and butter in a pan kept over another pan with boiling water. Mix well until chocolate and butter melt completely.