Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe (Eggless)
Looking for a moist chocolate cake recipe to try? Look no further. This is the easiest homemade cake I’ve ever come across.
It’s sinfully delicious, with a rich chocolate flavor, a moist tender crumb, and unlike traditional cakes, it’s made without eggs, milk, or butter. It’s a great option if you’re looking for a vegan or dairy-free dessert.
Do you want to make muffins instead? Try my double chocolate muffins
Moist chocolate cake recipe (no eggs, no butter, no milk)
This is a great recipe for those with egg sensitivities, or when you crave a good cake and you open the fridge to see you forgot to get eggs or butter.
Use this chocolate cake as a basic sponge cake for birthdays, anniversaries, or any other special occasion. Fill it with whipped cream, chocolate ganache, jam, or keep it plain, with just some powdered sugar sprinkled over the top. Everyone will love it!
Ingredients & substitution suggestions
This eggless cake recipe uses basic ingredients that are probably in your pantry right now.
- All-purpose flour – you can use cake flour instead, your cake will have an even softer texture.
- Granulated sugar – can be replaced with caster sugar.
- Cocoa powder – adds a rich chocolate flavor. I used Hershey’s Unsweetened Cocoa Powder, choose a good quality unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Baking powder – helps the cake rise. Make sure it is not expired!
- Liquids – use your favorite unsweetened non-dairy milk, dairy milk, or half milk and half juice. You can also give extra depth with coffee, simply replace some of the milk with cooled coffee.
- Oil – you can go with neutral vegetable oil, avocado oil, or with a more pronounced flavor such as olive oil, coconut oil, or hazelnut oil.
- Vanilla extract – for flavor.
How to make eggless chocolate cake
This cake is one of the easiest cakes to make – two bowls, one wooden spoon, nothing complicated!
- Whisk the ingredients – combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet in another.
- Make the batter – pour the wet into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or a spatula until you have a smooth batter.
- Bake – pour the finished batter into your prepared cake pan and bake. Mine was perfectly done after 40 minutes but each oven varies a bit so do the toothpick test. A moist crumb attached is fine but there shouldn’t be raw batter.
You can stir in 1/2 cup of extras like peanut butter chocolate chips, dark chocolate chunks, chopped nuts, or sprinkles into the batter right before baking.
Tips for success
- Measure the ingredients correctly – is your cake dry and tough? Adding too much flour is the most common mistake. I highly recommend using a kitchen scale. If you don’t have one this is how you measure flour with cups: fluff your flour with a spoon, spoon it into your measuring cup and use a knife to level it off.
- Don’t overmix the batter – is your cake dense and heavy? Be careful not to over-mix the batter. Mix just until the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Don’t open the oven door – leave the oven closed until the minimum time stated in the recipe.
How to serve this egg-free cake
A dusting of powdered sugar works beautifully on this cake, but you can also ice it with your favorite frosting, buttercream, or chocolate ganache.
Serve a slice of cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and some fresh strawberries. The sky’s the limit here.
How to store & freeze
To store: cover the cake tightly and store it at room temperature for up to 2 days and/or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
To freeze: you can freeze the cake for up to 2 months. I usually let the cake cool completely, cut it into squares, and freeze it in an airtight container or wrap the slices tightly in plastic wrap and place them in a freezer bag.
Recipe adapted from “Cookaround”
Frequently Asked Questions
You over-mixed the batter. This will cause the gluten strands to over-develop and give you a dense cake. Once you add the dry ingredients, you should only whisk as much as necessary to combine the ingredients well.
Always double-check that your rising agent is not expired.
Insert a clean skewer into the center of the cake. When you remove it, it should be mostly clean with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. If there is wet raw batter on the skewer, the cake is not cooked yet.
If you use non-dairy milk, this dairy-free eggless cake recipe can be considered vegan.
If you make this cake without eggs, please leave a feedback and rating in the comment section below. I always love hearing how it turns out for you! ♡
More chocolate desserts
- Silken Tofu Chocolate Mousse
- 2 Ingredient Dark Chocolate Mousse
- Avocado Chocolate Mousse
- Flourless Chocolate Cookies
More cake recipes
- Chocolate Italian Sponge Cake
- Apple Cake (No Butter or Oil)
- Italian Sponge Cake
- Easy Pumpkin Bundt Cake
How To Make It: Moist Chocolate Cake (Eggless)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup + 2 tablespoons (200 g) all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (75 g) unsweetened cocoa powder sifted
- 4 teaspoons (16 g) baking powder
- 1 ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (450 ml) milk dairy or non-dairy milk
- 2½ tablespoons (35 g) vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 320° F (160° C). Butter and flour an 8-inch (22 cm) cake pan or spray it with baking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and baking powder.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Don't over-mix!
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow it to cool for 15 minutes in the pan then turn it out onto a cooling rack.
- Transfer to a platter and dust with powdered sugar before serving.
it looks great i will definetly try it !
but can i use apple sauce instead of sugar in this recipe ?
Hi Reem! I am not sure about substituting the sugar with applesauce…Let me know if you try it!
Very good recipe! Not much mess and very easy to make. It tastes like a chocolate mud cake!
Thank you Jacinta! I am glad you enjoyed it :)
Thank you for this recipe!
I was in a pinch this weekend to make a cake and I had run out of eggs, but this recipe saved the day!
I think I may have over-mixed a bit, as it made a large dome on the top, but the dome came down as it cooled and it worked out perfectly! Thank you!
Hi Lori! Make sure you don’t overmix the cake or it will become too dense. I am glad at the end everything went well :)
I am so happy to have found this recipe. Vegan, simple and very few ingredients and not a lot of oil. I just made this for my husband’s birthday with a few tweaks and it was a success. I doubled the recipe to make a 2-layer cake with jam in the middle, but I only used 300gr of sugar instead of 400. I used flax milk and added the zest of an orange. I covered it with a mascarpone frosting (yum!). This is now my go-to recipe.
Hi Helene! I am glad you enjoyed the cake :) Thank you for letting me know your changes, I will try to reduce the sugar as well next time. The mascarpone frosting sounds delicious!
Elena, I loooved this recipe. At first I was looking for no butter or margarine cakes and when I saw that yours didn’t have any added eggs, It definitely got my attention! The only thing I didn’t like was the oil part because my aim was to bake something heart friendly.. so I did my research and swapped the oil for avocado puree. At first it sounded weird to me but I gave it a chance, such as I gave it to your recipe. The result was amazing! You don’t even get to notice the avocado’s flavor. God, I wish I could sent you the photos, the taste was unbelievable, so moist and so deliciuos. My dad got fascinated with it and didn’t believed me when I told him it was made with avocado and no eggs or butter. Next time I’m trying this with fewer sugar or sugar substitutes (specially, natural ones) to make it even healthier. Thank you so much for sharing and don’t doubt to give the avocado a try!
Adriana, that’s really interesting! How much avocado did you use? :) I am curious to try as well!
I used the same amount of vegetable oil you recommended in the recipe but in avocado (3 tablespoons) :)
That’s great Adriana! :)
Cake in the oven as we speak! Hope it turns out as good as everyone else’s!
Hello, Elena. I made your cake and it was indeed moist and delicious. :D Thanks a lot for sharing and have a great week. xx
Its an AWESOME cake recipe…….. Thanks a lot for tis recipe…………its awesome….. :))))
Thank you for trying this recipe! I am happy you liked it :)
Omg super yum thankyou! Made for my toddler daughter and with coconut milk!
Thank you for your feedback, Pamela! I am so glad you liked it :)
Hi, this is the best cake recipe i have come to so far… Keep up the good work!
Thank you, Hadil! I am glad you enjoyed it! :)
Mine is in the oven as we speak! Batter tasted great ;)
Thanks for making this and telling me about it, Rebekah! By now it’s out of the oven, I hope you enjoyed it :)
Wow, this is a delicious cake! It whipped up quickly and easily, and came out beautifully! Thank you!
Thank you Charlotte! I am glad you liked it :)
I tried this recipe and it came out excellent. The cake is moist and also delicious.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment, I love getting feedbacks!I am glad you enjoyed it :)
Hi! I used your delicious recipe with some peppermint extract and it was so good!
Thank you for your feedback Mirjam!That sounds so so good :)
Hey thanks for sharing this recipe. I was just randomly searching for eggless recipes and came across this page..The cake turned out to be really yum!
You are welcome! :) I am glad you enjoyed it!
Very delicious recipe. I wish my cakes would turn out this moist!
Thank you! :)
Love this recipe I swop vanilla to orange flavoring/fresh orange
All the family love it.thank you
I love this cake with orange flavoring. Thank you for your feedback, Paula! :)
I love it! I am 10 years old and surprised my m8m. Made it all by myself. Really simple!
**Meant MOM**
That’s fantastic, well done! I am sure your mom loved it :)
Hi its a brilliant recipe! I didnt have Vanilla so i added cinnamon to the dry ingredients andna sprinkle of walnuts over the top – magic! i ve got pics but cant upload them for you, how can i do it?
Hi Cintia! I would love to see your cake. :) You can upload it on Instagram and tag me, upload it on the Facebook page, or email it to me
It was great! Thank you!
This cake is delicious! Thank you !