A Triumph of Egglessness

I have been an indirect-eggetarian. Well, cakes are just too sacred to be missed out on; egg or no egg, occasion or no occasion.  For a household which did not consume onion, eggplant(?!) and garlic four months (“chaturmas”) a year, getting eggs in the kitchen even once a year took a considerable amount of rebelliousness, cajoling and whatnot (“saam-daam-danda-bhed”). I have to confess: despite all the knowledge one has at disposal in today’s age, till about very recently I did believe that homemade cakes just don’t rise satisfactorily without eggs. I definitely was missing something: turns out, in both with and without egg cases. Because though I avoided openly admitting to it, deep down I disliked the egg smell - especially in homemade version of the cake.

Let me clarify – my dislike isn’t founded on (a) disgust or (b) (misguided) principles. (Or so I would like to think.) I have watched way too much of MasterChef to have any of (a) left. And in principle, I still wholeheartedly agree with “Jeevo jeevasya jeevanam” – a (living) being, being a life for another (living) being. Apparently not so whole-stomachly though - I haven’t had a strong desire, or need, to try any non-vegetarian food. And while we are on principles, “To each his/her own” is #1 on my list (easier listed than followed ;)). Whatever - I just mostly try not to bother too much. And so when a hard-core non-vegetarian friend of mine cited the reason of “ecological foot-print” for turning to vegetarianism, I only had a high-level/rough idea of what he meant... “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari, an absolute masterpiece of a book, provided me a much-needed deep-dive. Harari describes how the food chain is being significantly altered and manipulated by “Sapiens” with the modern-day assembly-line-esque meat, egg and dairy industry (yep, there is a powerful case to be made for veganism too, but one step at a time!). If the description is intended for any effect, I guarantee you extreme disturbance and distress. Apart from ecology, there are huge animal-psychology and animal-rights angles to the whole thing. (Let this not mislead you into believing that, this, in any way, is the central idea of the book – because it most certainly is not.)

You are, being misled, though – I am sensing an impression as if this is my foray into advocating vegetarianism. Naah! I mostly just wanted to convey/show-off my relatively recent discovery of ample recipes of eggless cakes which turn out perfectly well!  I have always rated myself as an average/reasonably-good cook in a conventional sense, but baking is an altogether different  and specialized ballgame. It demands precision, patience, practice and persistence of the tallest order. So if you are armed with all that and equipped with recipes like [1] [2] [3] [4], you can probably bake the world a better place! J

[1] Top-left - Custard Powder Cake: http://www.padhuskitchen.com/2014/12/custard-powder-cake-recipe-eggless.html

[2] Top-right - Dates, Walnut & Coffee Cake: 
http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/eggless-dates-walnut-coffee-cake

[3] Bottom-left - Vanilla Cardamom Sponge-cake:  http://foodviva.com/dessert-recipes/eggless-vanilla-sponge-cake/

[4] Bottom-right - Apple Cake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=154EZGtup8o