Baking for Beginners: Vegan Chocolate Cake

This recipe was sent to us by reader Alexa and it sounds yummy. I'm too much of a meat lover to go veggie (and I love cheese far too much to go vegan) but I know a lot of our readers are vegan inclined. So here's a chocolate cake recipe that will be perfect for you.

You'll need:

• 115 grams of raw cane sugar
• 4tbsp of Green & Blacks cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 170g whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 90ml vegetable oil
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 2tsp cider vinegar or wine vinegar
• 200ml cold spring water
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 50ml vegan soft cream cheese
• 75 grams vegan chocolate
  
• Vegan Raspberry or Cherry Jam
• Maple syrup & soya milk to taste
• If you have it add some cherry liquor to spice it up!

That's an awful lot of ingredients! Most of the time, this cake works even if you substitute some of the ingredients. Just make sure you use the vegetable - that's what binds it together.

Make it!

• Mix the sugar, cocoa powder, salt, flour and soda thoroughly.
• Add the oil, vanilla essence & vinegar & pour the cold spring water over the mixture. Also add the cherry liquor if you have it.
• Combine well with a fork, but do not beat. Gently combine the ingredients and say positive things to encourage the cake.
• Can bake at 350F or gas mark 4 for 30mins or until the cake has finished singing. This is the crackling sound the cake makes whilst it is still cooking, once it stops making that crackling sound it is done, according to a Yorkshire cake specialist anyway! :)
• Spread onto the cake a mixture of lime zest and vegan cream cheese (Tofutti cream cheese is best)
• Top with Vegan Raspberry or Cherry Jam.
• Melt the chocolate and combine with some maple syrup & top the cake with the hot chocolate sauce & leave it to cool. Alternatively, thin the melted chocolate with soya milk and pour the lovely hot chocolate sauce over each delicious slice.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the recipe, Alexa! Got any recipes you want to send us? Just email us at the usual address.

Flickr image from Satoru Kikuchi's photostream.