We are in a brand new year with lots of dreams. May all your wishes come true in this year 2016. I don’t know why, but I haven’t posted this recipe for nearly five months. When I posted the Egg Free Italian Meringue Butter cream Recipe, I was about to post it the next day itself. But somehow I skipped it and forgot about this completely until today. I was going through my photos and I saw this recipe and wondered why haven’t I posted it yet? So now it is time for this recipe to see the world. When you read the name Aquafaba, you might be confused. But it is a very simple ingredient which gives amazing dishes. The water used to cook chickpeas some how acts just like egg whites and whips beautifully, makes delicious mousse, ice cream, meringue, macaroons and what not. There is a group dedicated to using the chick pea brine in all types of bakes known as Vegan Meringue – Hits and Misses and I became part of that group. This recipe is by one of the group members. Unfortunately I just saved the recipe but couldn’t track the author.
This recipe uses aquafaba/ chickpea brine instead of eggs. The amount of oil used is very low in the recipe. And the mixing technique has to be done properly to get the texture. If you don’t follow the recipe exactly, you will end up with a dense hard cake. So I was super excited as it was full of techniques. Feeling like Master chef!!!Usually eggless cakes doesn’t include too many techniques other than the creaming of butter and sugar. But this recipe is done just like recipes with eggs. Whipping of aquafaba and folding of the flour are the steps you need to concentrate on to get the perfect cake. I was so happy with the result. I hope you try this too. This cake doesn’t brown like the usual cake. So check the cake by 20-25 minutes. Do not over bake.
Recipe Source: Vegan Meringue – Hits and Misses
Makes two 6″ cakes or one 8″ cake
Ingredients:
Aquafaba (click on link for recipe) – 3/4 cup
Apple Cider Vinegar-1 tsp
Sugar – 3/4 cup
Oil-2 tbs
Vanilla Extract-1 tsp
All Purpose Flour/ Maida – 1 1/2 cups
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Baking Soda – 1/4 tsp
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
In a bowl mix together flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
In another bowl take the aquafaba and vinegar and start whipping with a beater.
Increase speed once the mixture becomes foamy.
Whip it until stiff peaks form. It will take about 10 minutes for this step.
Now gradually add sugar and keep on beating until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is thick and glossy.
Keeping the mixer running, drizzle oil and beat until incorporated.
Finally add vanilla and beat until it is mixed.
Now remove the beaters and have a spatula handy.
Add the flour mixture and gently fold the flour into the aquafaba. Do not over fold. Just fold it until all the flour gets incorporated.
Grease and dust two 6″ tins and divide the batter between them.
Bake the cakes for 25-35 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.
Remove the cake from oven and let it cool for 5 minutes on wire rack.
Now flip the cake on the wire rack and remove the pan.
Allow it to cool completely before decorating.
Vegan Vanilla Sponge Recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients
- Aquafaba - 3/4 cup
- Apple Cider Vinegar-1 tsp
- Sugar - 3/4 cup
- Oil-2 tbs
- Vanilla Extract-1 tsp
- All Purpose Flour/ Maida - 1 1/2 cups
- Baking Powder - 1 tsp
- Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Instructions
Procedure
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- In a bowl mix together flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
- In another bowl take the aquafaba and vinegar and start whipping with a beater.
- Increase speed once the mixture becomes foamy.
- Whip it until stiff peaks form. It will take about 10 minutes for this step.
- Now gradually add sugar and keep on beating until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is thick and glossy.
- Keeping the mixer running, drizzle oil and beat until incorporated.
- Finally add vanilla and beat until it is mixed.
- Now remove the beaters and have a spatula handy.
- Add the flour mixture and gently fold the flour into the aquafaba. Do not over fold. Just fold it until all the flour gets incorporated.
- Grease and dust two 6" tins and divide the batter between them.
- Bake the cakes for 25-35 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from oven and let it cool for 5 minutes on wire rack.
- Now flip the cake on the wire rack and remove the pan.
- Allow it to cool completely before decorating.
Hi Gayatri,
Fan of your cakes and other baking skills here. The cake looks amazing, perfect texture. You did it again ! Gayatri, I have been trying forever to get the right texture in an eggless cake. I tried aquafaba but sadly the whipped stuff deflates almost instantly once I add oil to it. I tried adding it in a slow stream while the mixture is running, adding it after the flour is mixed in, alternating flour and oil into the whipped aquafaba. What am i doing wrong ? And the cake ends up cloyingly sweet and chewy, not in a good way.
Thank you so much. Try out a different recipe. There may be some problem with the recipe. This is my first cake with aquafaba and it turned our really good.
I just tried making this and whisked it for an absolute age until stiff peaks formed. I followed your recipe exactly, but it was a total disaster. It came out as thin as a biscuit and tasted horrible… Such a shame as your pics looked really good.
What icing recipe do you use ?
I used the aquafaba meringue buttercream
Dear Gayathri,
Finding your blog when I became fascinated with the possibilities of aquafaba was a happy moment. I really enjoy your posts opening my eyes to new ideas every time as much as I enjoy the beautiful pictures.
Have a wonderful and prosperous new year in any way you wish for.
Greetings from Germany,
Jay
Hi, gayatri mam,i am sumathikeshav,i am a big fan of your blog.i have one question,that can we mix in hand means with any spatula becaz I don’t have stand mixure so…. Awaiting for your answer,thank you in advance.
If you are asking about beating aquafaba by hand, I should say that it is a tedious process. Even by hand you need to use hand whisk and not spatula. It may take non stop beating for atleast 20-30 minutes. Better to invest in a hand beater.
I am a vegan so all my recipes are eggless but the texture is a little dense. Can I add in the Aquafaba to make the texture light and fluffy even thought the recipe does not require eggs?
Aquafaba doesn’t make texture light in all recipes. Only by using it is selective recipes gives the correct texture..
Dear Gayatri,
Cake was really perfect. Thanks for the recipe. I made a gateaux with the sponge cake. Thanks once again.
Regards
Anita
Dear Gayathri,
Is the apple cider vinegar that you’re using in this sponge cake, is refined one or the one with mother?
Please reply!
What I use is the refined one.
Hey, Gayathri!
I tried your recipe and make a cake, after the night in a fridge it became very hard to slice, overall not fluffy and light as cake (the pastry itself) should taste like. Can you assume what i did wrong, if possible, please?
Greetings from Moscow, Russia!! 😀
Hi Sasha, the cake becomes soft once it comes back to room temperature. When you refrigerate, did you wrap it up in cling film. If left open it will dry out.
Hi Gayathri, Is there an alternate for apple cider vinegar? Pls lemme know. Thx
You can use the normal white vinegar or lemon juice.
Thats good to know. I am tryiing to make a lemon drizzle cakes, the recipe I tried to adapt failed miserably!
Infinite thank yous for this incredible recipe!! I made it today for a birthday and it turned out perfectly. I doubled the recipe and used vegan butter in place of oil and coated everything with a homemade frosting. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that many compliments on my baking before lol. Definitely my new go-to cake from now on 🙂
That is wonderful Emily. I am so glad you loved the recipe..
It was a success!! Thank you!
Dear Gayatri, many thanks for the recipe. I’ve tried it and it worked wonderfully!
Question: it’s strawberry season at my place, so I want to make a strawberry cake from this recipe. Do you have any recommended changes for that? I definitely want to make with aquafaba because my husband uses a lot of chickpeas for his hummus, and I don’t want to waste the aquafaba.
thank you!
Hi, thank you so much for sharing your experience. You can make compote out of strawberry and use it as a filling or puree strawberry, cook it down and use it to make some swirls in the batter. I also have some more aquafaba recipes in the blog. If you search it through search bar, you will get the results.
Thank you very much for the reply, Gayathri (and apologies for mis-spelling your name).
Any tips on recipe changes, if I am to add, let’s say 1/3 cup of pureed strawberries?
Thank you,
Icha
No issues. It is better not to change the base recipe. Aquafaba is quite sensitive and any change to the proportion would not give the proper result. Try using strawberries as an additive. Not as part of the batter.
Thank you for this. I have actually made the modification in the evening before your message came in (not a criticism here, everyone is busy after all…), and my modification was nothing short of a disaster ^_^ I added 1/4 cup of pureed strawberries into the final batter (after I added in the flour mixture), and the pectin in the strawberries acted like a super glue that turned the batter very gluey. I still put the batter in the oven (mainly because I’ve worked hard for it), with 165C and 25 min. It came out not fluffy at all, as expected from the batter, almost like a heavy chocolate fudge cake compared to the original texture. Oh well, lessons learned. The cake is still edible (I call it ‘break’ instead, haha!), but definitely not a cake…
I’ll add chopped strawberries instead next time, because you’re right, aquafaba is very sensitive… I’ll report back how it works with large chunks of strawberries…
Thanks for sharing your experience. Even though it turned out fudgy, it is still a lesson learnt. This batter is too sensitive, that is the reason for the cake to turn out fudge like. Wishing you success in your next attempt!
Hi Gayathri,
It’s me again. Reporting that this time I managed to bake the correct texture with just adding chopped strawberries. Because I know from experience strawberries can produce pectin that solidifies the batter really quick, I chopped the strawberries in large chunks and covered them with part of the flour before dunking them into the finished batter. I then folded them quickly and tossed them into the oven. For the last 5 min I reduced the temperature to 175C because the cake wasn’t ready when I tested it at minute 25. It was very nice. Still a bit fudgy (perhaps because of the strawberries, because I recalled the other batter I made in Europe last January was not fudgy at all), but it was definitely a cake, not a break (bread-cake), haha!
Thank you for the discussion!
This looks gorgeous. Thanks for sharing. Whenever fresh fruits are added in the batter, they typically leave some juice while baking. So the part surrounding the fruit usually turns out slightly fudgy. So I guess this is completely normal.