Probably the best luscious vegan chocolate cake I have ever made

It’s been a busy week with the day-job here at Vivez Vegan HQ. At one stage, it got so bad that Mr V was called upon to cook his two signature dishes: an unctuous rich vegan chilli and a fresh spicy veggie pasta with smoked tofu lardons. Cake baking had to take a back seat during the week, perhaps not a bad thing given that we’re enjoying an early spring here and shedding the layers reveals the extra few pounds put on over winter. It was a good opportunity to try out some of the scones and apple muffins that I’d batch cooked a few weeks ago and frozen. I’m pleased to report that both freeze well and just need one minute in the microwave (for two) to be returned to their just-out-of-the-oven freshness.

So, with baking confined to the weekend it was time to try an extra special recipe and what better than a luscious chocolate cake. We’ve tried hard to give up chocolate over the winter as neither of us has the willpower to just eat one square, but there was some organic cacao in the baking cupboard and a bar of cooking chocolate (dessert noir - vegan) which Mr V bought for the chilli. (Try it, it really does make a great difference to chilli.). I rarely make chocolate cake for fundraising events, they don’t seem to do as well as more traditional English-style cakes, and in the past, I’ve just followed my Mum’s Good Housekeeping rules of substituting three tablespoons of flour with cocoa. But this little vegan beauty was something entirely different.

As usual, I turned to my favourite cake blogger, Vegan Richa. The Vegan Chocolate Cake with Vegan Peanut Butter Ganache looked just the ticket. It just needed a few tweaks for French ingredients. I was concerned about the call for ‘powdered sugar’. A quick Google revealed that this was equivalent to icing sugar, or sucre glace here in France. Powdered sugar is one of the American terms that you have to get used to when following American recipes, a bit like cup measurements. The raising agent in this cake is just the baking powder, with a tiny bit of apple cider vinegar so perhaps the lighter, finer sugar improves the lightness of the texture.

A few weeks ago I’d sent a link to this recipe to a vegan friend who was planning to bake a chocolate anniversary cake. The resulting photos looked fabulous. Her feedback was to grease and/or line the tins well, as the batter tended to stick, but otherwise the cake went down well with her guests. The only problem I encountered was making the ganache. The jar of peanut butter in the cupboard was crunchy, which threatened to produce a knobbly rather than smooth shiny surface. What to substitute? The recipe advised any nut butter, but I had nothing in except tahini.

Another quick Google confirmed that tahini is, in fact, just sesame butter. It has pretty much the same nutritional profile as peanut butter and has even been suggested as being the best nut butter. I was concerned that the distinctive sesame taste would come through, but there is so much rich dark chocolate and sugar in the ganache that it actually balances out the sweetness nicely. Another time I will probably try almond butter and a layer of cherries for a full Black Forest gateau vibe, but this first experiment turned out a fabulous rich and luscious cake.

Luscious Chocolate Cake

Luscious Chocolate Cake

2 cups plain flour
1 sachet levure chimique
½ cup cacao
1 ¼ cups sucre glace
1 ½ cups soya milk
½ cup dark dessert chocolate (about one-third of a 100g bar)
¼ cup colza
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp maple or agave syrup

●     Place the broken-up chocolate pieces in a jug with 1 cup of milk and microwave to warm and melt chocolate, whisk to combine

●     Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl

●     Add the remaining milk, oil, vinegar and syrup to the jug and mix well

●     Pour the wet mix into the bowl and whisk well to a thick but pourable batter

●     Pour equally into two well-greased and lined 8” tins

●     Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 C for about 30 minutes

For the ganache, I warmed half a cup of milk, half a cup of sucre glace and the rest of the bar of chocolate, broken up, in a small saucepan. Once all melted, I added about three tablespoons of nut butter and mixed thoroughly. Chill in the fridge to thicken and then spread on cake to sandwich the two pieces and coat the top.