There is the old "Crazy Cake" recipe. No eggs, no milk. And it's yummy.

Here is one for a 9x13:

INGREDIENTS

* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups white sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups cold water

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a 9 x 13 inch ungreased cake pan. Make three wells. Pour oil into one well, vinegar into second, and vanilla into third well. Pour cold water over all, and stir well with fork.
2. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Frost with your favorite icing.

I have also made it as a layer cake and a bundt cake. Just grease and flour the pan. Or grease and dust with cocoa powder. And mix the cake in a bowl as usual.

My favorite chocolate cake recipe (from Joy of Cooking) is very similar to this one. Mine reverses the proportions of oil and cocoa powder 3/4 cup cocoa powder and 1/2 cup oil It also has less salt (1/4 tsp) and doubles the vanilla. It has a good chocolate flavor. It is what I make when we want a chocolate cake even if it doesn't need to be vegan or eggless.

I agree this isn't enough cocoa powder. I pulled a recipe off the 'net. Use the larger amount. I can't find my recipen right now.

My son has been a vegetarian for about seven months now, and I bought some egg replacer to use for his cake in August (and any muffins, corn bread, etc. that we make). It's Ener-g Egg Replacer, and I ordered the initial box online, but then found it in the health food section of one of our local grocery stores.

Thanks! I actually just found something like this in The Passionate Vegetarian. I do have a similar recipe that I have tried , but it used boiling water poured over the top of the other mixed ingredients and not stirred. That comes out like a pudding with cake on top so I was unsure of this recipe. Is it like a basic cake so I can frost and decorate it?

Duh! I just read back over barnmom's post and she said she used it as a layer cake. The recipe in "TPV" uses 2/3 cup cocoa and 1/2 cup oil, but maybe I'll use the 3/4 cup cocoa. The recipe also suggests apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, do you always use white vinegar?

I may have to do this early tomorrow instead of today. They already have severe thunderstorm warnings out and are talking about isolated tornadoes, not the best baking weather. It is hard to check your cake if your hiding in the basement!

Sorry Tammy, I forgot to thank you for your suggestion. But as you can see in my previous post, I'm not going to Whole Foods today. It is a good ten mile drive, partially through a forest preserve, I'll look at that for a future occasion when I can get there. Do you know what is in it? Then I can check with him and see if it is OK to use in the future. There are several things used as egg substitutes in commercial baked goods that he cannot eat. This is actually for religious reasons so it is pretty strict.

No problem, jcrowley! I've included a link to this so you can check the ingredients.

Here is a link that might be useful: Egg Replacer

Thanks for the link Tammy! Looks like it should work for us.

OK, I made the cake! I made it in two 8" square pans so my son can take one to his friends house to surprise him (there are only 2 other kids going) and one that I could taste. I think it tastes very good, it is also very moist! I did use 2/3 cup cocoa (should have used 3/4) and 1/2 cup oil. My recipe also used only 1 TBSP of vinegar and 1 TBSP of vanilla. I will be making this again, and not only for vegetarians! Have you ever tried reducing the amount of oil in this cake? I think I'm going to try that next time, I always get good results using half the oil and egg beaters in basic cake recipes.

It's a very good cake for the amount of effort! I got the recipe from my grandmother who got it years ago from a neighbor or family friend. It's been around since the depression. It's the only cake my grandmother made, she wasn't a confident or skilled baker but this one she made regularly. I'm glad you liked it. I've fussed a bit with the proportions and like the increased cocoa. I'll have to find my grandmother's handwritten card one of these days. I looked for it last night but it didn't surface.

I have to thank you again. Raj loved his surprise cake, he wrote me a lovely note thanking me for making a special effort to make him a cake he could eat. He is such a sweet boy. He loved it so much he asked for the recipe. He loves to cook and said it was the best vegetarian cake he had ever had, and that it was unbelievably moist. My husband just had some of the sample cake and he thought it was great too. I was so glad Raj liked it, it is hard going to parties as a vegetarian. For one of his parties, the place catering was suppose to make a vegetarian cake and they put eggs in the cake so he could not even eat his own birthday cake!