Heinz ‘Mayo Cake’ recipe confuses people – but it’s actually the ultimate food hack

Scrolling Instagram and coming across a recipe for a ‘Heinz mayo mudcake’, you’d be forgiven for thinking the brand had lost the plot.

Mayonnaise in a cake? Surely not, right?

Well, it turns out adding the ingredient might not be as strange as you think.

The cake was shared on social media by Heinz Australia and New Zealand, as an Easter cooking suggestion.

Heinz shared the mayo tip on social media (Credit: Heinz)

“Missed out on the egg hunt? Treat yourself to a slice of our Heinz Mayonnaise Easter Mudcake instead,” they wrote, before linking a recipe.

The recipe suggests mixing Heinz mayo with cocoa powder, hot water and vanilla essence, before adding the combined ingredients to flour, baking soda and sugar.

And let’s just say, people found the suggestion a little divisive…

“I’m so confused why is there mayo in a chocolate cake?,” wrote one person.

Whilst another simply commented: “Thank you for ruining Easter”.

“It’s not April 1st,” said a third, assuming the recipe must be an April Fool.

Mayo is about to become your new favourite baking ingredient (Credit: Alamy)

Doubters aside, the recipe isn’t actually as crazy as it sounds. Believe it or not, using mayo in cakes is a relatively common baking hack, and it actually makes a lot of sense.

“Mayo is essentially just eggs and oil, plus a little bit of acid so it makes sense that it works in cake batter,” explains Twisted‘s Junior Food Producer, Spencer. “It just ensures your cake stays nice and moist – it doesn’t make it taste like mayo!”

And several keen bakers said the same in the comments.

“I’ve been making a choc mayo cake for about 25 years,” said one. “No different to a recipe asking for eggs and vinegar. Taste great, and the cake is super moist and delish”.

Whilst another wrote: “I’d suggest people look up what Mayo is made of, then work out what goes in cake and maybe they will understand why this works.”

Touché.

Bakers swear that mayo makes cakes delicious and moist (Credit: Alamy)

If you are keen to try using mayo in a cake, you just need to make sure it doesn’t contain added flavourings like garlic or mustard. Now that would be a strange mixture.

As far as we’re concerned, though, this is a great tip for when cupboard supplies are low.

So take that haters.

You can find Heinz’ Mayo Mudcake recipe on their website.