Eggless Whole Wheat Pound Cake

I developed this recipe years ago when I wanted a simple cake using ingredients we literally always have at home. It is beginner-friendly and fuss free with no special mixing directions. I have made the all-purpose flour version literally hundreds of times and it has NEVER failed to deliver. It is a case of the simple, done spot-on, with all tastes and flavours melding perfectly – everyone will enjoy this cake, regardless of age, nationality or dietary preferences.

On one of my son’s earliest birthday parties, we got one large decorated cake from the regular grocery store while I made another small one for the few guests who, like me. did not eat egg. Eggless then was mostly confined to chocolate versions, so this ended up being tried out by many. Even those who ate egg preferred this cake to the store bought version made by professionals.

Pound cake is the American term for a plain, no-frills cake with vanilla alone used for flavouring. It is almost always made of refined all-purpose flour aka maida.

I have, of late, been reworking my recipes to reduce/remove refined flour without significant compromise to taste. Here, I have replaced 100% of the white flour with whole wheat flour. The taste difference is minimal.

A Note on Measurements, Ingredients and Cooking Times:

1 cup is between 237 ml to 250 ml. 1 teaspoon (tsp) is 5 ml and 1 tablespoon (tbsp) is 15 ml or 3 tsp. When measuring flour and sugar, never pack it in (unless specifically mentioned) – just loosely fill and very lightly level.

Being a cake, we are looking for a soft texture – therefore, white (rather than red) whole wheat flour is preferable, and ideally, soft wheat. In India, standard chappati atta works beautifully. You can also replace the white sugar in this cake with unrefined cane sugar -Amrit (in India) or Sugar in the Raw (in the US).

Cooking times are based on large ovens as found in cooking ranges and chef style wall ovens – NOT on OTGs (Oven Toaster Grill aka toaster oven). If making in small OTG type appliances, please reduce temperature and keep checking for doneness regularly. Times vary between all ovens and can be diametrically different if the appliance is significantly smaller. This particular cake would be too big to fit in most OTGs – therefore, do check and halve the recipe and use appropriately sized pans.

Ingredients:

1. 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour (please read Note above for what flour to use)
2. 2 tsp baking powder (Weikfeld brand recommended in India)
3. 1 tsp baking soda (cooking soda)
4. ½ tsp salt
5. 225 gms or 2 sticks of butter, melted (if using salted butter, skip the added salt)
6. 1 ¼ cups of fine grain sugar (standard US sugar works – in India, sugar is of variable grain size. If coarse, run it through the blender to make it finer – but it should not become completely powdered)
7. ¾ cup milk, at room temperature (low to full fat – skim is not preferred)
8. ¾ cup plain non-sour yoghurt, at room temperature (home made is ideal)
9. 2 tsp vanilla extract / essence

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (~180 degrees C). Place a rack in the centre of the oven. Grease and flour (do NOT skip this) a 9” by 13” rectangular or a 11 cup bundt pan.

Mix first four ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Mix melted butter and sugar. Add milk, yoghurt and vanilla essence. Mix well. Add all dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly blended.

Pour into prepared cake pan. Bake in the pre-heated oven until an un-greased skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean – this can take between 30 to 50 minutes depending on the pan. When you make it the first time, note down what pan you are using what how long it takes.

When done, remove, ideally, unto a wire rack (for air circulation through the bottom of the pan too). When still warm but not too hot, turn over onto a serving plate. If the cake gets too cool, it will not come out of the pan. If it is too hot, it can break up and parts of the cake will stick unto the pan.

Serve plain or dress up as desired – with frosting (not at all required, though), fruit, syrups, nuts or ice cream. This can be made up to be as fancy as you like. Enjoy! Do comment and let me know how you liked it.