Egg-free Chocolate Log Cake

When my daughter was 6 months old, we found out she was allergic to eggs. We had done everything modern research told us to do – we introduced all of the major allergens as her first foods, waited three days between everything she tried, and yet we still managed to end up in the ER after our first round of scrambled eggs. Thank you, Mother Nature.

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While the idea of cooking ANYTHING makes me (and likely anyone I’m responsible for feeding) want to cry, I was forced into having to make every meal from scratch. I’ve since gotten used to that part, but as she’s gotten older, we’ve started to face a different set of problems – B was previously oblivious to the fact that other people ate different food than she did. Now, she’s totally aware – and it’s apparent nowhere more clearly than when it comes to dessert time.

Thankfully, this beyond-easy chocolate log cake was something my mother used to make for me as a child, and it’s one of the few cakes without eggs that (IMO) actually tastes good. While I use whipped cream in the below recipe, my sister-in-law has replaced that with whipped COCONUT cream and her son (who’s allergic to dairy, fish and corn) has eaten it without any problem.

CHOCOLATE LOG CAKE INGREDIENTS:

• 1 box Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers (link is only for reference because Amazon’s overpriced – you can get this in the supermarket for around $4 in the cookie aisle)
• 2 cups heavy cream (replace with unsweetened coconut cream if allergic)
• 2 tsp vanilla (optional)

CHOCOLATE LOG CAKE INSTRUCTIONS (which are actually printed on the back of the above Nabisco box in case you don’t feel like reading on):

1. Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form – if you’re using a stand mixer, set to medium-high. It’ll probably take around 3 minutes. Once that happens, add your vanilla (if you’re using it) or if not, keep whipping for another 1-2 minutes until the peaks become “stiff.” This basically just means that if you lifted the whisk out of the bowl, some of the cream would sorta stand up and stay where you left it for a split second.
2. Start with a chocolate wafer, layer it with some whipped cream, then another wafer, then whipped cream, etc. I usually stack them like a Jenga tower until I start worrying that it’ll fall, then rotate it to its side and lie it down like a snake (or, as the name suggests, a LOG…).
3. Finish it off by covering all visible sides of the log with leftover whipped cream and refrigerate it for up to 3-5 days. In fact, the longer it’s in there, the softer the wafers get and the better it tastes. You can also freeze it for at least a month, probably longer.

If you’re pressed for time, you can actually forego the stacking part entirely and just lay each wafer flat like a lasagna into whatever bowl you’ve got lying around, with the whipped cream separating the layers that way. You can also just crumble up the wafers and mix in the whipped cream so it looks like mashed potatoes. It’s not as impressive-looking, but it gets the job done in half the time and still tastes good.

Grab yourself a glass of milk and a big spoon and you’ll be good to go.