The other day it was my friend Karen’s birthday, we all got together and had the most delicious homemade mushroom pies, that were all individually marked and then we all had a slice of the vegan chocolate cake that I attempted to bake her for her birthday. Karen has been vegan for a while now and all I can say is, I don’t know how you do it friend. High-5 to you for sticking to your guns because I think I would of caved a long time ago.
Before this cake excercise, I thought that there wasn’t a lot that vegans could make or eat, but the big beautiful internet quickly put an end to that myth. There are loads of nice things to make and this cake is just one of them. I followed the recipe off Sweetapolita, I also used her recipe for a rich chocolate frosting, which calls for Vegan, non-hydrogenated margarine, which in english means Blossom margarine – I must be honest with you guys, I couldn’t get my head around this. The icing tasted nice and sweet and like icing should, but to me it also tasted way too much like marg, which freaked me out. A lot. The cake itself was dark and dense and moist, this is a really cool recipe if you are looking for one, my only advice would be to try out some of the other vegan margarines that are out there for the icing, apparently there are a few, or just try your damndest to forget that you are using margarine.
Ingredients
275 g plain/all-purpose flour
100 g natural cocoa powder
2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking powder
a pinch of salt
450 ml/1 +3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
2 teaspoons (10 ml) red wine vinegar
320 g caster/superfine sugar
320 ml sunflower oil
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vanilla extract
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (315°F) Gas 4. I used 2 normal sized cake tins and split the batter in half to make a 2 layer cake.
2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Sift twice.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the soya milk, vinegar, sugar, oil and vanilla extract. Pour into the flour mixture and stir until well combined.
4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake in the preheated oven for 40-55 minutes. A wooden skewer inserted in the middle should come out with almost no crumbs attached, and the middle of the cake, when pressed, should spring back slightly instead of sink. Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes if necessary.
5. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Slide a table knife all around the edge to loosen the cake, then remove from the pan. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 1 hour.
Vegan Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
• 227 g Vegan, non-hydrogenated margarine – I used Blossom • 1 cup icing sugar • 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 ml) pure vanilla extract • 145 g quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped, melted and cooled (I used Callebaut Dark Callets 70.4 % ) • 1/4 cup (60 ml) almond or soy milk • pinch of salt
Directions
1. In a bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine the icing sugar and margarine and beat on low speed for about 1 minute.
2. Add vanilla and beat on low until well combined. Add the melted & cooled chocolate and beat on medium speed until smooth (about 2 minutes).
3. Add almond milk and salt, and beat on medium speed for another minute.
Is even the pastry of the pies vegan?
AMAZING!
Marg sounds gross. The trick is not to try and make a cake into a vegan cake. You need better recipes. Eg. replace the marg with something like banana puree. Or make a raw choc tart with avo – they’re insanely delicious! But good on you for trying for your friend.