baking in India Archives - Passionate About Baking

Eggless Cherry Chocolate Tart Cake … delicious cakes for summer!

Eggless Cherry Chocolate Tart Cake … delicious dessert ideas now that cherries are flooding the market! With the summer heat almost unbearable, with the temperature hovering between 45°C- 47°C for days on end, it’s summer fruit like these that make the days bearable! Even better and kind of indulgent if you pair them with dessert!

Chocolate pairs beautifully with cherries and this quick eggless, part wholegrain dessert cake is quite delicious and very easy to make. The tart cake is something I bake quite often, this raised flan tart tin one of my best buys. I find it quite fascinating since it gives me a nice cavity to fill the cake with and the possibilities are many. My eggless cake always leaves the tin perfectly.

Say cherries and you have my attention! Take a look at the different kinds of desserts you can make with this bright and cheerful stone fruit. Cherries in season add a splash of colour and endless possibilities for desserts. The hotter it gets in the plains of North India, the juicier and sweeter the cherries get, the more inspired I feel.

Black Forest Gateau is an inspiration in itself and has led me to create so many versions of the German classic, like the Eggless Cherry Chocolate Cake Jelly Cake above and several more. Having a bottle of Kirsch or cherry brandy adds to the deliciousness.

For a non alcoholic version or if you don’t have cherry brandy on hand, a simple cherry juice works beautifully as well. All you need to do is simmer a handful of juicy red cherries in about half a cup water with a dash of sugar until soft. Strain out the juice, add a dash of lime and cool it. Get even more creative with it, add a little agar agar powder and voila, you have cherry jelly like the one I’ve used below or in the Eggless Chocolate Cherry Flower Cake here.

About this cake, I absolutely love how beautifully chocolate pairs with cherries here. I also love how hungrily my one bowl part wholewheat cake soaks up the generous glug of Kirsch {or a simple sugar syrup} giving you a really moist cake.

The tart cake is one I make quite often, and this tart tin was one of my best buys. It’s given me endless joy! I’ve had such a great time thinking up flavours and combinations and the result is always pleasing and ever so satisfying. I keep trying to pick a favourite but I think I love each one I make. Tart cakes look quite pretty as well, don’t you think?

That’s what I love about flavour pairings and desserts. You can always customise dessert for friends and family; it’s easy as easy can be. Whether it’s a black forest tart cake, a walnut/pecan orange nut cake, a tiramisu inspired one, raspberry chocolate, chocolate pistachio or then a seasonal favourite like saffron mango, there’s always something for everyone.

I love to soak the cake somewhat generously, sometimes just as it comes out of the oven which makes it all the more delicious. So there you go, so many flavours, so many combinations in this Raised Flan Tin which is the best baking tin ever! Do tell me if you try the recipe, and do tell me what your favourite flavour pairings are.

Please tag me on Instagram at Passionate About Baking or share a comment here on the blog if you make this, or any other recipe from the blog. I’d love to see it!

Eggless Cherry Chocolate Tart Cake

This Eggless Cherry Chocolate Tart Cake is a delicious and easy-to-make dessert perfect for hot summer days when cherries are abundant. The tart cake is one I make quite often, and this tart tin was one of my best buys.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, British, French, Italian

Keyword baking, cake, cherries, chocolate, dessert, drupes, eggfree, eggless, eggless baking, eggless cake, eggless layered cake, fruit, homemade, no eggs, one bowl, soup, stone fruit, summer dessert, tart cake, vegetarian

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 45

To set 6

Total Time 7 45

Servings 8 people

Equipment

1 Raised flan tart tin , Link above
3 Mixing Bowls
1 weighing scale
1 Electric hand beater
1 Oven
1 Cherry pitter
1 saucepan
1 spatula
1 balloon whisk

Ingredients

Eggless chocolate sponge

210 g buttermilk
35 g oil
15 g clarified butter/ghee
100 g castor sugar
15 g cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Pinch salt
50 g wholewheat flour/aata
115 g all purpose flour/maida

Cherry pie filling

250 g cherries pitted
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp water
50 g sugar
Juice of 1 lime

Chocolate ganache

100 g cream 25% fat
100 g 55% couverture chocolate

To moisten

35 ml Kirsch {cherry brandy} or simple sugar syrup for moistening

Garnish

Fresh cherries, mint, edible flowers etc

Instructions

Eggless chocolate sponge

Preheat the oven to 180℃.
Lightly grease the tart cake tin with oil.
In a large bowl, add all the ingredients and give them a good whisk. I use an electric whisk.
Pour the batter into the tin and tap sharply to settle the batter. Bake for 30 minutes, until the tester comes out clean. Cool the cake and demold gently.
Place the chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream and pour it over the chocolate. Cover the bowl and leave until the chocolate softens. Stir until smooth.

Cherry pie filling

Whisk everything together in a heavy bottom pan and gently simmer for about 5 minutes until thick and glossy and the cherries soften slightly but still hold shape. Strain the cherries out and reserve them in a bowl. Simmer the liquid until thick, then stir it back into the reserved cherries. Cool.

Chocolate Ganache

Place the chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream and pour it over the chocolate. Cover the bowl and leave until the chocolate softens. Stir until smooth.

Assemble

Moisten the cake with Kirsch.
Add the cherry pie filling into the indent. Pour over a layer of ganache to cover the cherries.
Refrigerate the cake to set for 6 hours / overnight until the ganache is firm.
Dust the top with cocoa powder and garnish with fresh cherries, mint, edible flowers etc.

Video

Eggless Orange Almond Pecan Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake … delicious mouthful!

Eggless Orange Almond Pecan Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake … this pound cake is everything good, actually JUST TOO GOOD! I used to bake a really nice orange pound cake when I used to bake with eggs. It had a wonderful crumb and each bite was moist and satisfying. One bite of this eggless pound cake and the memories just came tumbling in. It was exactly as I remembered, ONLY BETTER!!

Addictive, bursting with flavour, rich , indulgent, moist, great dense crumb, sliced beautifully, kept well, travelled well too. It’s not often that you find so much good in a single cake but this one certainly ticked all the boxes. And oh my, the pecans, cranberries and chocolate chips together do create some sort of magic in there.

There’s always been an endless charm about the quintessential pound cake, a connection to the years gone by. When I began baking, a pound cake was one of the earliest things I’d bake on repeat, the history behind this classic European tea cake making the recipe simple to remember … a pound of flour, a pound of eggs, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter it sang in my head!

I used to write a blog on the Times of India eons ago under the pen name of The Rabid Baker and this particular Wholewheat Coffee Chocolate Chip Pound Cake was a very popular recipe, one that I baked often, perhaps too often. Another favourite was the Wholewheat Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake which tasted really lovely topped with lightly sweetened cream ad fresh strawberries.

Other times I’d bake a chocolate pound cake or an orange pound cake that I would always have ready when the kids came home from school. At the time, we travelled to the US often and I carried back a few basic bundt tins and they were perfect to bake a pound cake in.

Another recipe was the Blueberry Lime Buttermilk Pound Cake that I baked occasionally as a very special treat since anything blueberry was hard to come by back in the day. Not so now, since blueberries in every form are very easily available here now – fresh, frozen, dried, dehydrated …

The years went by and my favourite pound cake got forgotten because I stopped baking with eggs. Then last year I made an Eggless Pistachio Cranberry Loaf Cake, essentially a pound cake, and I was smitten! I feel in love with the gentle flavours, the rich delicate crumb, and addictive indulgent taste.

Natural orange as a flavour in cakes is something I truly love, something so easily achievable. This winter, the local bazaar has been flooded with carts of fresh, juicy oranges, called ‘kinnow/keenu‘ locally, a high yield mandarin orange hybrid. I thought instantly of the Eggless Strawberry Orange Tart Cake that I had made a while ago that was bursting with fresh flavour. I definitely had ORANGE on my mind and I wanted to try something new.

I was juicing oranges that morning and decided to bake an orange pound cake since I always like to use the zest. I was pretty excited already at the batter stage when I saw all these flavors and that delicate orange colour come together. I knew this was going to taste good and I wasn’t wrong!

Once the cake cooled down completely, I gingerly sliced it not sure what to expect. It tasted amazing, quite addictive actually. As kids, we used to get something called a sliced Britannia cake in the local market. It was thinly sliced, gently sweet and quite buttery. One bite of the sliced eggless orange pound cake and it took me back to my childhood.

Now that I’ve been baking cakes for too many years, I can well imagine what might have gone into that Britannia Cake! Compared to that cake, my honest to goodness, from scratch, home baked version was a million times tastier! Prettier too. The cake disappeared pretty soon and I was back to juicing oranges and baking pound cakes on repeat!

It’s this particular version, the Eggless Orange Almond Pecan Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake, that I found we loved the most. It has a bit of everything, almost like a Christmas fruit cake and as delicious! There’s something about the pairing of orange, chocolate chips, cranberries and pecans that makes the taste buds come alive. Fresh, exciting flavours, a wonderful bite to the already rich crumb, absolute simple goodness! It’s love at every bite honestly, do try the recipe!

Do tag me on Instagram at Passionate About Baking or share a comment here on the blog if you make this, or any other recipe from the blog. I’d love to see it!

Pound Cakes

Eggless Cakes

Orange Cakes

Tea Cakes

Eggless Orange Almond Pecan Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

There's something about the pairing of orange, chocolate chips, cranberries and pecans that makes the taste buds come alive. The cake has fresh, exciting flavours, a wonderful bite to the already rich crumb, absolute simple goodness!

Course Appetiser, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American, British

Keyword baking, cake, cranberries, dessert, eggfree, eggless, eggless baking, eggless cake, homemade, loaf cake, no eggs, one bowl, orange, simple, sweet, tea, tea cake, vegetarian

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Cooling 2

Total Time 3 15

Servings 8 slices