Who needs a go-to chocolate cake recipe that you can depend on for great results? This Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake is a legacy all to itself! To top it off, it’s dairy-free, too! I don’t know about you, but I never have enough chocolate in the house. This has been made for two different birthdays, two different ways! One was as a layer cake and the other was cupcakes!
Why the mayo? When there were limited ingredients during the Depression or World War II, bakers had to be creative because of the scarcity of baking ingredients. Mayo is a mixture of eggs, a bit of oil and a bit of acid, if you’ve ever made your own from scratch. I did once and here’s a link if your are interested ( Marvelous Homemade Mayonnaise). It was an impressive food chemistry experiment, for sure! The mayo cake has appeared in magazines and cookbooks as early as 1927. By using mayo, instead of butter, you’ve made a super moist dairy-free cake!
Start by sifting or whisking all of the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and light brown sugar. My little sous-chef, Weston, assists with the task When done, mixture should be light in color and lacking in sugar lumps. A whisk is all that you will need to make this masterpiece; no mixer required.
Blend in the mayo (yes, I said mayo) along with vanilla. If you have picky people in your house, you may want to do this secretly. Once they take a bite of this and rave, just smile and claim there’s a secret ingredient that can not be disclosed. 
Alternately whisk in flour mixture with hot water. Here’s what it looks like once it’s ready to pour into your prepared pans These 8″-cake pans had a parchment paper circle placed in each, followed by Baker’s Joy non-stick spray.
After baking for about 35 minutes, I placed them onto a cooling rack for 5 minutes before removing them to cool completely That chocolate aroma is intoxicating. Take a few whiffs of that warm alluring piece of chocolate architecture.
More recently, I made this Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake in cupcake form for my nephew’s birthday. Fill the cupcake liners with about one and a half large scoops of batter. They were done in 15 minutes! It made approximately 27 cupcakes. Just top them with this Amazing Buttercream Frosting which was adapted slightly Food Network’s site. It’s flavor/color can be adapted easily and used on any cake. It holds its shape incredibly well.
Here’s the end result of my first attempt, sugar to the max which is the way he likes it. To quickly summarize, once cooled, I cut off the mound level with the pan’s rim and placed it on the bottom. A layer of mint ice cream softened and smoothed out in one plastic-lined 8″ cake pan then frozen after cakes were removed from pans. Lift frozen ice cream out of pan using the plastic wrap overhang; place it on top of the bottom cake layer. Quickly put remaining cake layer on top of ice cream layer. Frost with thawed Cool Whip, The place in freezer for about an hour or two. This one was then decorated with Thin Mints from the Girl Scouts. followed by more swirled mounds of Cool Whip. Freeze until ready to eat. Take out 20 minutes before serving to assist with easier slicing. Cover and place any leftovers back in the freezer.
Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Ingredients
- 2 c all-purpose flour
- 2/3 c cocoa
- 1 t baking soda
- 1/4 t baking powder
- 1/4 t Kosher salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 2/3 c light brown sugar
- 1 T vanilla extract
- 1 c mayonnaise (I used Hellmann's.)
- 1 1/3 c hot water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Sift together the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, briskly whisk together the eggs and light brown sugar until no lumps remain.
- Blend in the vanilla and mayo until well combined.
- Mix in the dry ingredients and hot water alternately. The batter will appear a bit thin.
- For cupcakes, place 1 1/2 large scoops of batter in paper cupcake liners. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pan.
- For 2-8" cakes, place batter in pans lined with parchment paper bottoms and sprayed with non-stick baking spray like Baker's Joy. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pans. Frost when completely cooled.
- For a 13' x 9' x 2" pan, start checking at about 30-35 minutes before removing from the oven.
