Did I ever tell you about the day that I was appointed chief of detectives of the egg police? No? It was a several years ago before the blog, on Mr NQN’s birthday and we were having dinner with the Elliotts (cue the music to Jaws please Mr Music). I had organised his birthday at a Japanese restaurant and I was busy trying to negotiate a second language which I barely speak and people were asking me all sorts of questions about the cake, the food they were eating and just general daftness. Then, there was a loud, dramatic gasp and then a cry from Mr NQN’s mother Tuulikki who was sitting next to me. I had apparently let her eat a piece of okonomiyaki, an egg omelette. “Lorraine! How could you let me do that?” she asked me looking at me accusingly and hurt.
“But, but it looks like a pancake or an omelette … and they are two things that you can’t eat as they both have eggs!” I spluttered, my energy completely sapped from the whole experience. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, I had been appointed the chief of detectives of the “Egg Police” and was expected to watch what she would eat and warn her accordingly. From that day on I resigned my position and she was on her own. It was up to her to ask whether an item had egg in it and if she ate it, it was her responsibility.
I know she and I have our moments where the vegan clashes with omnivore but we do get along well as long as we aren’t talking about food. And apart from being an entertaining and charmingly eccentric artist, she also created Mr NQN who is the most wonderful specimen of humandom. Anyway it was Tuulikki’s birthday and I decided to make her an eggless, vegan chocolate cake.
Except I wanted people to have no idea that it was a vegan, egg-less or dairy-less cake. I wanted it to be moist, gooey and rich with an “eat me” texture to it – not like some vegan cakes that I had eaten which would err towards hard and dry. I baked the cake and decided the best way to keep it moist would either be to poke holes in it while it was still warm and pour a rich chocolate syrup on top or spread the syrup once cooled as a thick icing. Either way I think after much experimentation, we finally had a vegan chocolate cake that could pass as a regular chocolate cake. It was rich and it had a moist, tender crumb – everything you could want in a cake yet this one had no eggs or dairy in it.
So it came to serving the cake. I asked Tuulikki if there were forks for people to eat the cake. Her brow wrinkled and she put a finger to her chin thoughtfully. “I haven’t been able to find my forks….” she mused before pausing for a second and then her hands sprung up into the air. “Eureka!” her expression said.
“Oh yes, the forks must be in the bedroom!!!” she said before scurrying off to look for them.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you have a good repertoire of vegetarian, vegan or allergy friendly recipes? And are there certain topics that you just can’t discuss with some people like politics, relligion or food?
Chocolately Rich Vegan Chocolate Cake (Egg & Dairy Free)
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
- 1.5 cups plain or all purpose flour
- 1.5 cups brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
- 1.5 teaspoons bi carbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cups water
- 1/2 cup mild flavoured vegetable oil (eg. canola oil)
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 75g/2.5oz dark chocolate (dairy free) finely chopped
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup icing or confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon cocoa
- 100g/3.5ozs dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1. Line a 20cm round baking tin with parchment and preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. In a jug mix the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla and then add to dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate and and then pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
2. While it is baking, prepare the syrup. Heat the water, icing or confectioners sugar and cocoa until boiling and syrup – this may take a few minutes but you do want this syrupy. When thick add the chocolate and then whisk to remove any lumps and melt the chocolate.
3. When the cake is ready, take out of the oven and leaving it in the tin, poke tiny holes with a skewer. While it is still warm, gently pour the syrup over the cake and allow to cool completely before taking it out of the tin. Alternatively, if you allow this to cool and partially set, it takes on the consistency of icing and you can spread it out over the top which is what I did (who knew that inattentiveness would pay off? 
).
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114 Comments | Add your own
That really is one of the best looking vegan cakes I’ve seen Lorraine
well done!
I’ve got a close friend who’s recently decided to become a vegetarian and her boyfriend is Vegan. So I’m hoping to build my repertoire of vegan and vegetarian recipes ~
I have some friends and I can never EVER talk to them about religion because I don’t really have any religion they are really offended.
What a beautiful cake Lorraine.
I love your photographs on this post. They are so moody.
Magda
This cake looks divine! I bet it’s got a lovely texture.
Cheers,
Rosa
Lately I don’t like do discuss politics and religion, I’ve had it enough. Food? I don’t care much what people eat as long as they don’t wash my brain with their ideas. I use to “fight” back, proving something, until I realized it stressed me out and put some extra pounds on me. No, thanks. Great cake!
How hilarious your mother in law sounds…it would test my patience
. Great job on the vegan cake! My collection of allergy friendly recipes is few but starting to grow as I’m finding I am not having a good reaction to too much dairy.
What a great recipe! I know so man people who have allergies to eggs and dairy – I think I will be able to impress them now!
Oh yummy. My vegan friends will love this.
This is a variation of my favorite chocolate cake recipe. This is the cake I make on the fly, all in the pan I cook it in! My daughter Willow had horrific dairy allergies and could die if she was exposed to milk or eggs so this was her birthday cake! Yours looks much better than mine however LOL I will have to show Willow how pretty it COULD Look!
I have no vegan or allergy friendly recipes at all.
Just in time for fasting! This cake looks amazing and I’m sure my family will devour it as soon as it’s done, let alone allowing it to cool! Thanks Lorraine.
This cake! I have been a little skeptical of vegan cakes of late having had one recently that had the texture of cardboard, this on the other hand looks divine!
Yum! I love different cakes. Sometimes the ….free ones are the best
My mouth is drooling at 8am. This looks absolutely fantastic Lorraine. Good on you for doing something egg and dairy free
Oh so yummy! And all I need to do its to switch out flours, and I can dig right in!
My mother in law Just doesn’t get that I have food InTolerances, she still says things like ‘if I just give you plain pasta without sauce, it will be wheat free, won’t it?’ I never leave my food choices in her hands!
Every meal I make is suitable for most food InTolerances, thats why I’m The In Tolerant Chef
You had me at chocolate! Great story.
You are a sensational daughter-in-law! My MIL can’t eat chocolate, but my husband and my cherubs love it, as do I, so chocolatate it is, at our wedding, at birthdays, wherever! I should also add I usually make a batch of vanilla cupcakes as well to accomodate her but I still get the ‘you know I can’t eat chocolate’ comments…
This looks like a wonderful gooey cake. I also love the pictures, that tinted black and white quality they have is fab. My best friend is a vegetarian, her son is diabetic and her daughter is anaphalactic to nuts. We all used to go on holiday together. My cooking became very inventive! GG
looks amazing will try this for my intolerant friends. By the way doesn’t everyone keep the forks in the bedroom?
I do have vegetarian recipes, gluten free recipes and general allergy awareness recipes that I can easily make; I look at it as a challenge because I, like you, don’t want to make more than one dessert, or meal for example, I want everyone to enjoy the dessert or meal I made as is. And they usually do. This chocolate cake looks really wonderful, it’s a good thing that your MIL is not gluten intolerant too!
Well, I have ulcerative colitis, which means that I have some restriction with dairy products when I’m on a crisis, at that time I’m responsible to always ask if what I want has milk or not. Of course sometimes I “forget” to ask and then is when my husband becomes mad with me. It’s hard to have food restrictions.
I love the photos of this cake. The dark background makes the cake look even more indulgent!
I don’t have a great repertoire of those sorts of things but I do have an amazing gluten free chocolate cake recipe.
Oh I know this one so well! I’ve been making the same cake for a good 50 years. The only difference being, I use white sugar and less vinegar. My Mother used to make the same cake for my brother & I when we were youngsters, as butter, eggs & milk, were rationed. I believe the recipe my mother used and passed down the family, came in a government cooking booklet with hints & recipes on how to cook & bake without butter, milk & eggs.
The cake went by many names, with War Cake, & Depression Cake being the most used in my family. I’ve also seen it referred to as, One Pan Chocolate cake, Three Hole Chocolate cake, & Eggless, Butterless, Dairyless Chocolate cake.
It was a lovely moist chocolate cake way back when, & its a lovely moist chocolate cake even today!
This vegan chocolate cake looks delicious. I’ll forward the recipe onto my vegan friend.
My friend has gone vegan for lent, so this is excellent!
My father in law is incredibly intolerant, so when he starts on one of his rants about homosexuals or other races we get into massive arguments that bring the house down, because he doesn’t make sense! Lol.
Great timing Lorraine, need an egg free cake for a two year olds birthday,last effort was dry as an old boot!
Spend most of my time searching for things!so had a laugh about your mil and the cake forks!
Discussing politics,sure to fire up any conversation,we all have an opinion and love to air it!!!
I must admit that I don’t just embrace vegan recipes in general, being a “dairy” kind of gal, but this cake looks amazing. I have a pretty good grasp on vegetarian recipes as my husband is vegetarian, but not vegan.
With time, I have learned not to rock the boat as much as I did when I was younger. Now I tend to stay away from politics and religion as general topics, unless encouraged…
Hello vegan goodness! So glad to see you posting this recipe Lorraine! Such a marvellous cake!
Wow this cake looks amazing
Reading this definitely was a good start to my morning.
This cake recipe looks really really interesting and simple. I will make this in the near future.
Reading this I have just decided I am very lucky at least in certain ways
! None of the friends I cook for are vegetarian, vegan or food intolerant 
! I do have a number of vegetarian cookbooks and files of recipes on same: but only use them 2-3 times a week for health reasons to balance my diet. Methinks we all try to make the people around our dinner table as comfortable as possible: so yes, I do at times consciously avoid certain topics – a Greenie Buddhist Nutritionist totally non-Racist character like me finds it better sometimes just to smile or offer another dish around 
! With others it is fun to debate and argue till the morning hours . . .
Oh Lordy, this looks divine!! Good on you for making such am effort. I need to build up my stock of such intolerance friendly recipes. This one = clear winner!
Heidi xo
Looks delicious! very not vegan like..
Who said a cake made without eggs cannot be moist, TRUE!
GREAT photo taken too!
I host MANY food theme parties throughout the year…is SO me!
With ALOT of planning, enjoying the EXHILARATION of finding those new recipes…I take into account ALL of my guests dietary needs…finding colorfully exciting vegetarian foods to compliment their personality!
I purposely unveganize recipes. I don’t know any vegans, but I am not going to keep butter flavored spread in my house. And its so much faster to crack an egg than it is to make a vegan egg. Your cakes sounds delicious, and it was a good idea to resign from the egg police.
That is a great recipe for vegans and such a lovely looking cake – it doesn’t look vegan at all. My mother-in-law will eat anything. She once ate crispy bacon bits I had put aside in a bowl to dress the salad I was making. I went to look for them and they well all gone – she thought they were canapes! I despair! But like you say, these eccentrics somehow produce wonderful sons!
So yummy looking, I’m going to try it Lorraine. She is funny Mr. NQN’s mommy!
LOL egg police and forks in the bedroom
I love these photos – your cake looks so delicious and made my gaze mist-over. This looks like the kind of chocolate cake I’d love!
As for special requirements… My Mum & Uncle are vegetarian, Paul’s Mum has coeliac, and his Dad a dairy intolerance
The cake disappearsss!
I adore your styling for this one! Its like someone sat in the corner, in the dark and demolished the whole cake. LOL that’d totally be me
I don’t really have a repertoire of vegan recipes as thankfully, most people in my life are omnivores like me. Not that I’d find it a problem if I had to cater for a vegan occasionally, I would see it as a challenge.
Pouring syrup into the cake? Lorraine, you’re a genius. And this is coming from someone who never goes for chocolate cake herself!
You must be glad to be off the egg patrol. LOL That’s way too much responsibility!
Ah, we humans make our lives sooo difficult, it’s a wonder we’ve survived so far. These days it’s like walking/patrolling a minefield of political correctness,allergies sensitivities etc etc. Your articles/pictures/adventures are such a refreshing interlude ..:-)
Will have to try this recipe! My aunt doesn’t like my cousins eating too much cake but this seems like a healthy alternative which I’m sure she’ll approve of
Why oh why the forks in the bedroom?
BTW the cake looks divine. I have a similar recipe for chocolate mud cake. Yours look gorgeous. Love the colour.
Always useful to see vegan and eggless cakes, there could never be enough recipes for them, in my opinion (I eat eggs and dairy, but I have many vegan friends too!).
Ciao
Alessandra
Absolutely FANTASTIC photos! Your best ever, I reckon!
I do love myself a healthy cake and have a few relatives with allergies so need them up my sleeve at all times. This one has been bookmarked
Wow – great cake! My MIL always baffles me with her dietary ‘requirements’. She complains about her sugar levels and whinges about all the food she shouldn’t eat, yet she digs in whenever there’s cake or rich food on offer (plus seconds!). I’m sure she has the world’s first ever case of Part Time Diabetes.
Love your mini pedestal stand for a single serving, would make one feel ever so posh eating from it
Cake looks divine and I would happily devour , doesn’t matter that it’s egg and dairy free. Up until now there haven’t been any exceptions as far as intolerances , allergies and lifestyles go but my younger brother has become a fully fledged vegetarian bordering
on vegan and my niece’s son who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome is now on a gluten, dairy-free diet which is showing promising results. So, when we get together for a family meal there are considerations, eliminations and some tweaking to recipes.
No likey when dinner conversations involve Religion, Politics etc they just turn into screaming sessions with everyone wanting to be right.
Pass the bubbly someone!
LOL – a great story. I look up “free” recipes on an as needs basis.
That is the best vegan cake I have ever seen. Did Tuliki explain why the forks were in the bedroom?
I hate discussing politics with people as I tend to be a little bit left off centre which isn’t a popular choice in my neck of the woods
*ROFL* about being the egg police! And why were the forks in the bedroom?
It may be vegan but it looks really delicious. Don’t think I have ever used vegan and delicious in a sentence together before
Egg and daily free yet your cake looks stunning! It’s hard to imagine something is omitted here. Gorgeous photo and cake Lorraine!
That sounds like a wonderful cake. Very moist and fudgy. I’m always on the look out for allergy friendly recipes
You’re a wonderful daughter-in-law to make a birthday cake that your mil could eat too. I think I would have just made fruit salad!
I know a few people that i don’t talk religion or music with for fear of offending long-held beliefs and terrible taste.
How can I possibly think about cake, vegan or otherwise, while my brain is struggling with keeping forks in the bedroom. LOL
Just one day, give me one day to follow you around and a box of tissues to wipe my eyes when they leak from laughter, okay?
oh joy, a vegetarian recipe that doesn’t include NUTS, this one suits all the allergy sufferers in my family, except maybe the ones who don’t like chocolate!
There are never enough chocolate cakes in the world!
How does anyone get around you and not talk about food?
Love your sweet comment about Mr. NQN. The cake looks fabulous. Well done! xoxo Mum
Dear Lorraine
Must say I don’t have a single vegan recipe although I am beefing up my vegetarian recipes for lunches though I would need that meat fix after a few days
Beautiful cake and even nicer that does not contain eggs…looks delicious and moist.
Hope you are having a fantastic week Lorraine, and thanks for this great recipe
Wow, that looks decadently rich and moist – and I would never have guessed it was eggless or vegan =) I quite honestly couldn’t survive without eggs (meat, yes, perhaps, but not eggs) – but this cake goes a long way to bridging the gap!
Oooh, this looks lovely and moist, and absolutely perfect! Lol, my mom’s side of the family can’t talk about politics or religion without a major blow-out ensuing!
I love how you amped up the chocolatiness of this cake; it more than makes up for the lack of eggs and milk!
It looks to die for!!
Hahaha, I laughed at the forks being in the bedroom! Of course, where else would they be?
I try to keep an open mind about allergies/diet preferences – and I’m always interested in trying out vegetarian or vegan food. However, I know eschewing animal products is not something I could do long-term!
I could face-plant into that cake to avoid sharing it with anyone
This definitely looks good enough for a non vegan to eat. In general there are people it is better to avoid discussing certain topics with: you learn and then you stick to it.
this recipe was the first sort of vegan cake I ever came across without the topping and is wonderful – probably even more so with the topping
In my experience vegan cakes tend to be more gooey and moist because they lack the eggs to help them set – so I am surprised that the ones you have come across are dry but I can imagine there would be a few terrible vegan cakes about.
Your cake looks so rich and decadent! I bet your mother-in-law thoroughly enjoyed it! I know I would!
Politics is a topic I avoid with my father-in-law, in particular.
i am ALL about that icing–wowza! i have a woeful lack of vegan-friendly recipes, so this one’s going into the files!
I’m rubbish at cooking vegetarian – I would love to be able to cook the dishes you find in Chinese vegetarian restaurants back home… Major fail moment was last week, when I cooked up a whole vegetarian (or so I thought) meal and realised a little later that I’d used anchovy stock powder to flavour my couscous… :S
This recipe is fantastic Lorraine,I made it yesterday and it calmed my “must it cake” fix-we need not go without during the 40 day lent!
I baked it in a kugelkopf tin and also poured the syrup over the cake,but i poured it over when tepid and the cake hot.
The economy,laws,taxes,current wars are all no go topics…
Hi Sia, I’m so glad that you liked it! Could you tell that it was vegan or egg and dairy less? I’m just curious to see how others find the taste
Wow. this cake looks just luscious! Your mother in law is very lucky to have you as a daughter!
Hi Lorraine,
the cake has the richness of chocolate(without the chocolate) and not one of the guests I served could believe it was 100percent vegan.Everyone loved the fact it had the required density of a real chocolate cake,and enjoyed eating it more so because it was not overly rich -which meant there was room for second helpings!!
Ps
have you seen the vegan white choc in the supermarket?
How would you go about making a white choc vegan cake?something i’ll dabble with in the next few weeks.
Hi sia-I’m so glad that you liked it and that your guests couldn’t tell that it was egg less and dairyless! hehe and great, second helpings is the ultimate compliment!
I haven’t seen the vegan white chocolate in the supermarket. What brand is it? You’ve peaked my curiosity! 
Happy Sunday Lorraine!
The brand for the vegan white choc(I found it in coles) is Sweet William,it comes in 100g block and I found it in the health food section.
Also,I did a little investigating and found a few vegan choc brands that do fine vegan choc.
1. 73% dark cacao chocolate-Alter Eco fair trade(100g)
2.Le 100% Francois Pralus,100g
3.85% cacao,Vivani,100g
4.85% cacao,Bon Bon(81g)
5.Gourmet Dark Chocolate( this I found in the pharmacy)Sugarless Confectionery,100g
Still keen to find other white choc(vegan) ranges,so i’ll have a little poke around for a bit.
Aslo,have you seen the ”
evaporated soy cooking milk”,i think carnation does that one, but i haven’t used it yet.
Whilst on the alternative foods subject, Camel milk Chocolate-apparently very sort after in Dubai.Have you come across this or camel milk products?
Have a good week ahead!!
You are a lifesaver! My 10-month old son was recently diagnosed with dairy and egg allergies so I have had to cut out all dairy in my diet and I have been craving a really good chocolate cake ever since and your cake looks amazing! Will definitely give this a go and I am pretty sure it’ll end up being his birthday cake too. Would the icing for this cake work with the chocolate and avocado cake too?
Hi Carine-that’s great! I hope that you like it and a happy birthday to him
Oh yes it would although you might want to double it if you fill the cake with the icing too 
Thanks, Lorraine! Will bake the cake today for my father in law’s birthday today (my son’s bday is in 2 months, but thanks for the wishes!
) Am looking forward to eating chocolate cake again!
Ha! The egg police. I love that!
It always makes me mad when people say that ALL vegan desserts are horrible. Vegan cakes can be awesome, too! You just have to know where to look (like at this website)!
I made this for my Fiancees birthday and every one loved it. No one could beleive there was no eggs or milk. It was moist and delicious. It took approx an hour in the oven
Thanks for a great recipe
HI Maria-I’m so pleased!
Yes it’s one of those crazy cakes where you just cannot tell that it is vegan. Thanks for letting me know! Did you use the topping as a syrup or as an icing? 
I used it as syrup but I didnt think and put the syrup before I took the cake out of the tin so he cut the cake while it was in the tin hahahaha didnt make a difference though because it was so delicious
Hi, I’m baking this at the moment as a Easter treat for a family with multiple allergies – the usual suspects like egg, dairy and then cucumber, berries, onion, corn and other odd ones! Makes for some challenges in meals. The cake is smelling great. Would love for you to share more vegan recipes, please. Happy Easter.
Hi – thank you for such a great recipe. This makes an 8″ round – is the recipe suitable to double so I can make a 10″ square?? Many thanks!
I was also thinking of making a dairy free ganache to tort and cover the cake with (made with Williams and coconut cream) then covering with fondant. Would this work??
I’m sure your MIL really appreciated your effort to make a vegan cake for her.
It looks yummy! And I love how you’ve made the cake slowly disappear down to crumbs through the photographs.
I made this cake today, a vegan friend is coming for dinner. Honestly, it’s the best chocolate cake I have had in a long time, eggs or no eggs it’s amazing. Truly a great recipe.
Made this today, a vegan friend is coming for dinner. It is one of the best chocolate cakes I have had in a long time, eggs or no eggs. Instead of water I used coconut milk in the cake and baked in mini bundt pan. Truly a great recipe.
Would it be alright if I posted your recipe on my blog with full credit to you of course It was a huge hit last night at dinner and I would love to give you a shout out!
Hi Suzanne- no problems at all! I look forward to reding all about it!
Thank you so much here is the link to the post. Cheers!!
http://apuginthekitchen.com/2012/05/25/featured-recipevegan-chocolate-cake-and-almond-joy-ice-cream-vegan/
Hi
I looooove this recipe! I needed a good one for my Dairy free cake pop range!
Super quick n easy!
Thank you!
Cheers
M x
I’m just eating a warm slice now -so delicious! I accidentally left out the oil and it still turned out really well. Could be a good alternative for the fat conscious!
do you fold the dry ingredients into the wet? doesnt say what to actually do with the dry ingredients after mixing them.. A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!!!
Hi Lory, I’ve clarified that
Fabulous, so yummy. We just did a trial run for my soon to be 4 year old who is allergic to eggs & dairy and she loved it. It got our vote and will be her birthday cake. I have to admit it is better than any of the other cakes I have made. So lovely & moist. Thank you!
Hi Eve! You’re really welcome and I’m so glad that the trial run proved successful! I know what you mean, even though it is vegan and egg and dairy free, it’s still really good!
I and my family love this cake!! I only use one cup of water!! Have also tried today using gluten free flour and it was still awesome!! Maybe just a little flat but everyone loved it!!Like Chocolate mud cake!!
Hi, me again. Any recommendations on how to make this into cup cake sizes. Will I need to change anything, time & temp to cook? The big day is approching. I am making the cake but don’t think it will be enough as it is sooo delicious.
Such a wonderful cake. Beautiful dark dough!
Just thought you might want to know that we linked to you today. http://rooted-vegan.blogspot.com/2013/02/vegan-baked-good-link-roundup.html
Just wondering if you could share what the quantities are in grams/ounces? Many thanks
Hi,
Could i substitute the plain flour with gluten free flour? would i need to increase the qty of water?
Thanks for such a great recipe! I used this today to make a batch of cupcakes for a BBQ and they were a hit! Everyone was astounded when told they were dairy and egg free, as they tasted so good. Will be using this again. Thanks!
Thanks Kirsty!! Great to know that it makes a good cupcake too and I’m glad that they were such a hit!
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