Rich, moist, and totally delicious.
Oh my WORD!
If I tell you that Mr MT came back time and time again for this cake you would understand why I’m saying this cake is deeelish! Without a doubt it’s the very best vegan chocolate cake I have ever made. But it was a total accident.
The Accident
I set out to make Beau a 20th Birthday cake. Yes, I know 20! I mean it feels like five minutes since I made her the Lego Sleepover cake and the tall penguin cake. Now she’s vegan it’s become my challenge to make a cake she loves that you would never know was vegan. Sometimes the substitutions are so out there that the taste and texture aren’t quite right. I want them to be right!
I decided on a Victoria Sponge cake that I found on TheVegSpace.co.uk blog. I love her blog and used this recipe to make the top tier on my sister in laws wedding cake in September. Do you remember the heat in September? I made that cake in 31℃ It was literally a NIGHTMARE to stop the buttercream sliding off. But that’s a story for another day.
Anyway, I decided I would adapt this recipe to make a chocolate version. Of course, I decided this last minute and was pretty sure I had all the ingredients. I did not! So, as usual, I just substituted till I thought it would work. And it did. It REALLY DID.
When she got there the cupboard was bare
There used to be a time when I had a deep-rooted knowledge that I had all the flour, eggs, and butter I would ever need at any time to make any cake. Step forward to today and that is definitely not the case. I didn’t have enough flour for a Victoria Sponge – by a long shot. I did however have ground almonds. Mainly from my happy baking of these Vegan Coconut macaroons which I always intended on trying with almonds. That was an easy swap. Almonds for flour.
Make it chocolate
I’ve also been known to take any cake recipe and swap out 30g of flour here or there and replace it with cocoa powder to make a chocolate version. I wanted this cake to be deeply rich and with the almonds, I knew this had the chance of being like a torte. So again, easy swap. Remove a bit of flour, add a bit of cocoa. Check.
The egg situation!
There is always a dilemma when baking for a vegan. Eggs are incredibly hard to replace I’ve tried a lot of alternatives – chia seeds in water, Oggs (which were actually brilliant but mega expensive), Chic pea water which kinda works but tastes too strong for most bakes. I could go on but I’ll just say that after trying out this cake for the original wedding cake top in Victoria Sponge yogurt has become a firm fave alternative. Just wait till I share the next vegan choc-chip cookies with you (coming soon). They were a big success.
So, back to the chocolate cake. Yogurt. Check
Twenty Years Old!
I have something I want to confess to you. Since I had a little break (read 6 years) from this blog- which is still the digital love of my life, I haven’t made a proper celebration birthday cake for either of my daughters. There. I said it.
I was either snowed under with work, or they were away at a Scout camp or they just didn’t want one. I think this might be one of the first I’ve made since then. I lost my mojo but I am happy to say it’s back.
So, to decorate this cake quickly and easily without anything too buttercreamy on top – because I had run out of vegan butter 🙄 I cut out a ’20’ from paper, laid it on top and dusted the whole cake with cocoa powder. I then stuck two tall candles in it and sang Happy Birthday to her first thing in the morning.
When I say first thing I mean reeeealllly first thing. Mr MT had to leave for work at 6am. Beau smiled but I don’t think any amount of chocolate cake makes up for a 6am wake up call.
One last word about vegan buttercream
When I usually make buttercream for a cake I use President Butter. I’ve tried lots of versions of butter and in my opinion this is the very best. Now, when it comes to vegan butter it’s typically made from oil. I was worried that the taste wouldn’t work or it would be greasy but let’s face it. Add enough sugar to anything and you are going to enjoy it – or is that just me?
This chocolate buttercream recipe works. It is softer than real butter versions but it tastes great so I just used less and the top tier cake sunk into the bottom but that was A OKAY
Vegan Chocolate cake
Ingredients
- For the Cake
- 200g Block Margarine
- 300g Caster Sugar
- 200g Dairy Free yogurt
- 200ml Oat Milk – or vegan alternative
- 3 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 240g Self Raising Flour
- 110g Ground Almonds
- 50g Cocoa
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- *
- Buttercream
- 70g Non Dairy block butter
- 100g Icing sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 20g cocoa powder
Instructions
- To Make The Cake
- Line two 8″round baking tins with silicon paper. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan)
- To Make The ButterCream
- Whisk the butter and sugar together till pale and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl sieve all the dry ingredients together.
- Add the butter-sugar mix to the dry ingredients and whisk in the milk, yoghurt and vanilla essence till completely combined.
- Split the mixture between the two cake tins and bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes or until the top starts to crack.
- Remove the cakes from the oven place on cooling racks for ten minutes then remove from the tins and allow to cool completely.
- To make the buttercream whisk all the ingredients together.
- Use a spatula to spread the buttercream between the two cakes or place in a piping bag and pipe throughout.
- Whisk up the butter and sugar
- In a separate bowl combine the dairy free yogurt, milk and vanilla extract. Mix together.
- Sieve the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and combine before adding to the wet mix.
- Stir until combined.
Let me know how you get on with this vegan chocolate cake and if you have any handy substitutions for vegan baking please share the love in the comments. I know me and the readers of this blog will love you forever for it.
Happy baking
Em x
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