A fudgy vegan cake and a herb-flecked chocolate chip loaf will satisfy your sweet tooth and are a doddle to make
My insatiable sweet tooth knows almost no bounds, so cake is something I take seriously. There are three that I make on rotation at home. One: a banana buttermilk loaf from my friend and soon-to-be royal-wedding-cake-maker, Claire Ptak. And then there are these two: a dense, gooey (and incidentally vegan) chocolate cake;made with coconut oil (as much of a hit with my two year old as it is my vegan brother) and a loaf cake peppered with flecks of rosemary and chunks of chocolate and which uses olive oil instead of butter. The rosemary and chocolate are an unexpectedly subtle pairing, which I adore. This is a less sweet cake, almost fudgy, dotted with chunks of chocolate with a delicate herbal back-note. It’s so good that, if I got married again, I’d have it as a layer in my wedding cake.
This is such an easy cake to make: no creaming, no sifting. Be sure to use a tight-fitting cake tin as the batter is quite wet and will run out if there are any gaps.
Prep 15 min Cook 45 min Cool 30 min Serves 8
For the cake 225g plain or light spelt flour 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 good pinch salt 75g cocoa 250g dark muscovado sugar 75g coconut oil 1½ tsp vinegar (I use cider)
For the icing 75g coconut oil 50g dark muscovado sugar 1½ tbsp cocoa 150g dark chocolate (70% cacao), finely chopped
Put all of the icing ingredients except the chopped chocolate into a heavy-based saucepan with 60ml cold water. Heat until the coconut oil is melted, making sure the mixture doesn’t boil, then turn off the heat, add the chocolate and leave it to sit. After about a minute, whisk until you have a dark glossy icing and set aside. It should be cool and thick by the time the cake has baked and cooled.
For the cake, whisk the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa together in a bowl. Make sure there are no lumps of bicarbonate of soda.
In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, 375ml of just-boiled water, the coconut oil and vinegar. When the coconut oil has melted, stir into the dry ingredients, then pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 35-40 minutes. When it is ready, the cake should come away from the edges of the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre will come out clean. Cool for 30 minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Pour over the icing and decorate as you wish – I have used a few flowers here, but chopped nuts and grated chocolate are also favourites.
