VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

Vegan choc cake

 I woke up this morning wanting to bake a chocolate cake and got started only to discover I had no eggs. (When Mammy goes away, nobody else shops...) Determined to make a cake, however, I googled egg-free chocolate cakes and found this simple, quick recipe on All Recipes.

The woman who posted this lives on the Falkland Islands where her parents own a traditional sheep farm. Cruise-ship tourists go to visit the farm and she makes this cake for her parents to serve to their visitors. Sweet :) I have adapted it slightly (more cocoa, less flour; I used soya milk, vegan marg etc.)

Juno enjoying the cake at our picnic

We brought the cake on a picnic to Glasson, Westmeath. It is delicious - really moist and chocolatey. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. A keeper recipe, for sure. (I also made salads for our picnic - will post on them anon.)

INGREDIENTS

170g vegan marg (or butter)

110g light brown sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

250ml soya milk (or cow’s milk)

2 drops of vanilla extract

150g plain flour

75g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

METHOD

- Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line the bottom of an 8" round cake tin.

- Melt the butter, sugar, syrup, vanilla extract and milk over a low heat. Stir to bring together. Pour into a bowl.

- Sieve the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb of soda into the wet mix. Stir well and pour into the tin.

- Cook for 40 minutes.

VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE - VALENTINE'S DAY

Personally I'm not a huge fan of chocolate cake but what nicer for Valentine's Day for my favourite vegan than Vegan Chocolate Cake? I got this recipe from veganchocolatecake.net and changed the weights to European ones.

Ingredients

185g plain flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon bread soda
100g sugar

½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
5 tablespoons cooking oil

1 tablespoon cider vinegar
240ml cold water

Icing

1 small bar dark choc melted

1 tablespoon of icing sugar, to thicken

Method

• Preheat oven to 180˚C
• Grease and line an 8 inch round tin
• Sieve the flour, cocoa, bread soda and salt in a large bowl
• Mix in the sugar and salt
• Make 3 holes in the dry ingredients. Put vanilla essence into one, oil into another and cider vinegar into the third.
• Pour cold water over the top. Mix only enough to combine all ingredients.
• Pour the batter into the tin
• Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean
• Decoration:
• When the cakes are cool, melt the chocolate
• Mix in the icing sugar
• Palette the icing onto the top
• Decorate with chopped nuts