My husband and I were recently invited to celebrate our friend’s birthday with a BBQ in the park. This friend and his family had recently adopted a vegan lifestyle, so I wanted to bring something that the birthday boy could enjoy. What better offering than a Vegan Chocolate Birthday Cake!
Before this, I didn’t really know what vegan meant. It wasn’t until I started researching recipes did I understand the gravity of the situation. Vegans do not consume any animal products at all. No milk or cream (fine). No eggs (ok…). And no butter (sacre bleu!!). Not to be deterred, I pressed on and came across a recipe for the best ever Vegan Chocolate Cake.
Ingredients
90 grams good-quality vegan chocolate
2/3 cup freshly brewed coffee
190g cups all-purpose flour
50g sugar
90g packed dark brown sugar
60g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil (don’t use virgin or light olive oil)
1/2 large very ripe avocado, mashed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened soy, coconut, or almond milk (I used coconut milk in this recipe)
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (or finely chopped vegan chocolate)
For the vegan ganache
220g vegan chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup coconut milk (lite or full-fat), plus more if necessary
I learned quite a lot in making this cake. Most dark chocolate is vegan (just check the ingredients don’t make anyreference to milk). Rainbow sprinkles are also vegan. And you really don’t need butter or eggs to make a cake.
This recipe uses a ripe avocado, olive oil and coconut milk as the liquid binder. The result? It looks amazing enough. But the taste? I regretfully couldn’t even bring myself to eat it, because present at the birthday BBQ was a full animal fat black forest cake that I couldn’t taken eyes off. But those who were game enough to sample this vegan chocolate seemed to enjoy it. Especially the birthday boy. Fait accompli! I CAN bake without butter.
Method
Butter a 12-cup bundt cake pan with whatever oil you have on hand (I used olive oil). Preheat oven to 180C.
Place the 90g of vegan chocolate and freshly brewed coffee in a small saucepan over low heat. Whisk until chocolate is completely melted, then removed from heat and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, stir stir together flour, both sugars, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt until combined.
In a separate large bowl, beat together mashed avocado, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth. Whisk in cooled chocolate and your milk of choice. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in the vegan chocolate chips. Your cake batter should be pretty thick. If it’s too thick, add in an extra tablespoon or two of your chosen milk.
Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and smooth top. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until tester inserted into centre comes out almost clean, with just a few crumbs attached. Let Bake for 35-45 minutes or until tester inserted into centre comes out almost clean, with just few crumbs attached. Let cool in pan an hour on a wire rack before flipping over and transferring to wire rack to finish cooling completely.
To make vegan chocolate ganache
In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add in coconut milk and chopped chocolate. Watch carefully and whisk until chocolate is completely melted. If you want a thinner ganache, add in more coconut milk. Let stand for a few minutes then immediately spoon ganache over cake. Top ganache with sprinkles and enjoy!
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