I was planning to post something else but this particular cake has been pleading to see the light of day. I have baked this Egg Free Custard Powder Snack Cake quite a few times. I never managed to take pictures of it though till now. This is one of those cakes that is easily made. If you don’t eggs, this is definitely for you. It is also a one bowl cake!
A lot of ingredients one takes for granted in countries where baking is a tradition, are not easily available in India. A lot of Indians do not eat eggs so custard powder is a very popular ingredient with us. As a child I remember fresh fruit and custard used to be a very popular dessert, both at home and in restaurants. So its isn’t surprising that we get custard powder in plain vanilla flavour and more exotic flavours like strawberry, chocolate, pineapple, mango and saffron-pistachio. Custard powder is great substitute for a lot of custard or creme anglaise based recipes if one doesn’t eggs.
I first discovered this cake by accident whille clearing out my kitchen stores/ pantry and realized I had a rather largish stock of custard powder. The usual fruit salad with custard sauce or a caramelized pudding wasn’t an option.
I had already made these really good Yo-yo biscuits and wanted to try something else. One other country I’ve found, other than India and the UK, that puts custard powder to really good use is Australia. A search of some Australian food sites led me to recipes using custard powder.
Some adjusting and tweaking later, I had an Egg Free Custard Powder Snack Cake recipe using custard powder. Substitute with corn starch if you cannot find custard powder where you live. Vanilla flavoured custard powder will give you a golden yellow cake while cornstarch will give you a white cake. So if you’re looking for a white or yellow egg free cake, here’s your recipe.
This Egg Free Custard Powder Snack Cake is soft and moist and a great snack cake after school or at teatime. It takes about 15 minutes to mix up and needs just one mixing bowl. It can baked as a round cake or a loaf. You could double the recipe and bake the batter as two 9-inch cakes and sandwich them together with cream/ frosting/ jam.
The cake can be topped with fruits of the season and served with cream. The possibilities are endless if you want it to look fancier. Plain or fancy, this is a cake recipe you can pull out when you need a simple, fuss-free and egg free cake.
This post has been updated with text and images since it was first published in November, 2010
Egg Free Custard Powder Snack Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup vanilla custard powder
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
- 150 gm butter soft and at room temperature
- 1 cup milk
- 1 1/2 tsps lime or lemon juice
Instructions
- Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Use a wooden spoon and mix well. Add the milk and the butter and beat with the spoon until you get a smooth batter. Add the lime/ lemon juice and mix it in.
- Pour the batter into a greased and floured cake tin (or two smaller tins) and bake at 180C (350F) for about 45 minutes to an hour or till the cake is done and a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean. Sometimes, depending upon your cake tin and the oven, this cake might take upto an hour to cook especially in the middle.
- Cool on a rack and serve. This recipe makes one 8-inch cake or 8 to 10 servings. You can make this cake in a 9-inch cake tin but you would have a rather squat looking cake.
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
A perfect bake with few ingredients to go in it. Yes, I would love to have that rustic look for my cake. Lovely recipe, Aparna.
Love the crumbs, rustic look is what we all are shooting for, isn’t it !
looking so tempting and with minimum ingredients and it is best recipe for who does’nt eat eggs perfect cake
Loved the crumb texture of d cake…..looks really nice golden colored cake..
Beautifull cake, it is ages ago i add our Indian custard with fruits, i used to love them when i was at home. The cake looks so good love the color too.
Thats a gorgeous looking cake, lovely texture..
very inviting..!! The color looks great..!! mm..yummy virtual treat..!!
Perfect cake with royal presentation….
Ooh lovely! I’ll have to recommend this to my friends who don’t eat eggs.
Hi Aparna, Great recipe! I will try it out soon (have many friends who do not eat eggs, and I am sure they will love this eggless cake). I am very fond of your blog and see it regularly from some weeks now :).Regards,Swati
Awesome! Cocoa bars anytime, love anything with Cocoa!
I love Vanilla custard and I am so going to try this out.Really..??so many flavors??I have only come across Vanilla and Strawberry!!
Wow.. perfect and mouth watering cake.. looks too good 🙂
How perfect! I have a whole can of english custard powder sitting unused. *runs off to check expiration date* LOL.
Wow that cake looks so yummm nice texture.
my cakes always have that cracked top and i ahve a feeling its got to do with oven temp???not sure thoughJust a quick question aparna..is this cake nice and sweet cos im such a sucker for sweet cakes and i was wondering if 3/4th cup sugar is fine for a nice and sweet cake to have on its own or would i have to pair it with something sweet..like u mentioned cream to get tht sort of sweetness?
That’s awesome!Your description makes me drool and I wana try it ASAP.Just a small doubt here-do you think it will work out if I try this in a regular Microwave?
Thank you for your comments.Welcome here, Swati. :)Divya, there are many more flavours available.Ann, then do try the Yo-yo biscuits as well. They’re lovely.An Open Book, Yes it could be oven temperature. I don’t always get this look with my cakes, so I’m thinking it has to do with my mixing of the batter.This cake is sweet enough for me, but if you have a real sweet tooth you could dust the cake with powdered sugar. Yes, serve it with sweetened cream.PJ, I think it should work in the MW but am not sure about time and power, etc.
Love the cake! Great crumbly texture!
It would be great to try a cake,an egg less one at that, with custard powder. Sounds delicious Aparna! And I surely know that u can’t put a blog post if u don’t have a passable pic.. sigh.!!
This looks sooo delicious! Defintly worth trying! 🙂
being eggless, seems to be very interesting……am certainly gonna make this.
I like the sound of a vanilla custard cake – i wonder what it would be like if you served it hot with custard? could be a delicious desert.
I would have never thought of using custard powder in a cake! The cake looks delicious, i might just try it 🙂
Sounds so super delicious.
good one!
That looks so good Aparna..tried ur ladi pav recipe the other day…thks for such a wonderful recipe came out just perfect…have posted on my blog today.www.cookingupsomethingnice.blo…
You are amazing. How can that gorgeous, fluffy, sky high cake be eggless? I can never find custard powder anywhere, with dehydrated egg or eggless. I’ve been told to sub with vanilla pudding mix, but it’s missing that ‘custardy’ flavor, if you know what I mean. Beautiful baking as always 🙂
what a delicious blog! here is so many uncanny inspirations!have a nice time,Paula
cake looks delicious…:)
Hi Aparna,its me again :).I baked this cake in a microwave yesterday and it was ready in 5 minutes!!Thanks a lot for the wonderful recipe.Do take a look at it in my blog when time permits 🙂
Love your eggless creations. This one looks like a classic!
Doesnt using granulated sugar as opposed to powdered/fine sugar affect the texture of the cake?
Davina, it would taste excellent with a custard sauce and be a good dessert too.Happy it turned out well, Vandana. Your pav does look good.Thank you, Lisa. :)Thanks, Paula.PJ, I saw your MW version and it looks awesome.Thank you Anushruti. This one is good even if I say so myself. :)Yes, using granulated sugar does make a difference to the texture. But its not a big deal in simple cakes like this. The noticeable difference is that if using granulated suagr, you invariably get a bit of a crunchy crust to your cake. I like that “crunch” in an otherwise soft and plain cake. 🙂
Hello…this was one easy recipe..and since am into eggless baking this was a heaven sent!! And all that was left of the cake was the pan!! 😛 Delicious…
Good to know its a hit there too, Meena. 🙂