Eggless Chocolate and Vanilla Cake with Black Currants

I became a member of Foodie group in FB and this was my first post in the group. Some have asked me for the recipe and so the post. 

I have a long list of to do cakes in my bookmarks. When I want to try a new cake, I feel so confused because there are so many to choose from. I had tried a Mocha choco vanilla marble a while back, which I have not posted here yet. The taste was amazing, so much so that a friend who doen't like sweets and sister who doesn't like chocolate cake (imagine that!!) lapped up the pieces and asked for more. And this time I found a similar recipe sans the coffee. This recipe was an eggless cake recipe and I wanted to see how it would turn out. I made a layer of chocolate sandwiched between vanilla, but one could do a coffee layer too or perhaps all the three together one on top of the other. THAT would be really exciting!

Layering in progress

Even mom was excited about the eggless cake recipe. She oversaw the entire process and as always she helped me scrape the vessel to make sure that there was no more batter left. I am being extremely careful now because dad always complains that I waste a ton-full of batter. Duh! How much ever I try, I leave some batter on the side of the vessel. So that's where mom's 30+ years' of expertise comes handy :-D

Batter ready to go into oven

Oh, the black specs that you see in the above picture is scraped vanilla. Yes! Fresh vanilla beans.  I have a bunch of fresh vanilla pods that my cousin Sushma got for me from Coorg some time back. I have used them in my bakes but I was not sure if the flavour is enough from half a vanilla bean. Hence, just to be sure, I added the vanilla essence as well.

Now that I have treated you with the pictures, without further ado, here is the recipe.

Eggless Chocolate and Vanilla Cake with Black Currants
Adapted from Passionate About Baking
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sieved
1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (or oil) (I used 1/4 cup butter +1/4 cup oil)
1/2 vanilla bean (optional)
1/2 cup dried black currants (optional)
1 heaped tbsp cocoa 

Method:
Preheat oven to 200 C for 10 minutes. Grease a 6″ round tin, and line the bottom.
Beat the vanilla sugar, scraped vanilla bean and yogurt for 5 minutes on high speed. Add baking powder and baking soda, beat in on low, and allow to stand for 3 minutes. You will find that bubbles appear.
Beat in the melted butter and vanilla essence. Next, slowly add the flour in 4 lots, blending in well after each addition.
Take 1/3 of the dough in a separate bowl and stir in the cocoa. (You can make just vanilla as well, in which case, omit this step)
Add 1/2 the vanilla batter to the bottom of the tin, smooth it out to spread across the whole surface. Add all the chocolate batter, and smoothen it out too. It might be pretty thick, as mine was. Top with the remaining vanilla batter to make a third layer. Top with dried black currants if using.
Bake at 200C for 10 minutes, reduce temperature to 175C and bake for 40-45 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. (PAB's recipe said 40-45min, I was using an 8" tin, so it took me 30-35min).
Cool the cake for 20-30 minutes and then overturn onto a plate. Let the cake cool completely before slicing. The cake will taste good the next day too.