The best ever Vegan Chocolate Cake

Introducing what I believe is the very finest vegan chocolate cake. It will turn heads, make people close their eyes and smile as they eat it..

It’s called the Affinities Cake. It’s not my recipe, I wish it was! No, it is taken from a feature in The Telegraph and was given to my mother-in-law when she was hunting for the perfect recipe to use for our wedding cake. The original recipe is by Chantal Coady, the only difference here is that I make a vegan ganache by melting chocolate into hot almond milk. I decorate mine with raspberries, rose petals, marigold flowers and cocoa nibs.

The Affinities Cake
Cooking time: 1 hour 20 mins

200g (7oz) plain flour
75g (2¾oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g (7oz) golden caster sugar
100g (3½oz) ground almonds
A small pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp good-quality balsamic vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
400ml (14fl oz) prune juice
Fresh pink rose petals, to decorate
For the ganache
170g (6oz) good-quality dark chocolate
150ml (5fl oz) almond milk

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2. Grease the insides of a deep 20cm (8in) round cake tin, or loose-bottomed 20cm (8in) cake tin, with olive oil and line the bottom of the tin with greaseproof paper. If you are using a loose-bottomed tin, double-line it with greaseproof paper (line the base, the sides, then line the base again to seal the lining), to prevent the mixture leaking out.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl, then add the sugar, ground almonds and salt. Make three holes in the dry mixture with a spoon. Put the vanilla in one hole, the vinegar in the second, and the oil into the third. Pour in the prune juice and mix well. Bubbles will start to rise to the surface. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the cake from the tin and leave it to cool on a wire rack.

To make the ganache icing, blitz the chocolate into crumbs in a food processor. Place the crumbs in a heat-proof glass bowl. Heat the milk to boiling point in a heavy-based saucepan, then pour the milk over the chocolate. Gently mix the chocolate with the milk, working from the centre of the bowl outwards with a rubber spatula, until you have a smooth and glossy emulsion. Let it cool to room temperature, then spread it on top of the cooled cake.

NB this cake usually takes about 1 hour 15 mins to cook! Keep testing it, but don’t take it out of the oven to do so, otherwise it may sink.

Gallery of Vegan Chocolate Cakes

I love chocolate cake. The love affair has been going on for as long as I can remember. I have made and eaten quite a few and here are some of them. Have you got a favourite vegan chocolate cake? Where is the recipe from?

One of the nicest I’ve had recently came from Gluten-, Nut-, Egg- & Dairy-Free Celebration Cakes: 42 Simple and Delicious Recipes for Bakers and Cake Decorators, by Gemma McFarlane. It was rich and very moist, lasted for days and was a heavenly cross between a cake and wildly indulgent dessert.

Today’s cake was a recipe given to me by Andrew Norton, of Naturally Kind vegan bakery. It too was very soft, moist and delicious, smothered with buttercream.

Andrew’s Chocolate Cake

Belgium Chocolate and Fresh Mint Cake

Viva! and Vegetarian Recipe Club’s Chocolate Berry Cake

Chocolate Fairy Cakes

Viva! and Vegetarian Recipe Club’s Chocolate and Brandy Truffle Torte

Big Birthday Chocolate Cakes

In my quest to improve my cake icing skills – this afternoon I baked two big chocolate cakes and piped them with chocolate butter icing.

The occasion is a very special 70th birthday party tomorrow – where most of the guests will be sampling a vegan cake for the first time.

The cakes weren’t masterpieces in terms of presentation, but the sponge is rich, moist and chocolaty.

I have my fingers crossed that the party guests will enjoy the cakes very much.

Happy Birthday to Jean, my future mother-in-law.

I can’t take credit for the recipe, it is taken from vegan recipe book 1066 Cake Stand’s Compendium of Cakes.

The only change I made to the recipe was using soya milk instead of water.

The icing is half vegan marg, half vegetable fat, mixed with cocoa and icing sugar.

My Love Affair with Chocolate Cake

Belgium Chocolate and Fresh Mint Cake

Chocolate is one of my favourite things. Every night, my fiancée makes me a hot chocolate to take to bed. I don’t often eat pudding, but instead, relish occasionally tucking into a few squares of dark chocolate of an evening.

If ever there a choice of cake, I’ll always opt for chocolate. My Bristol friends will vouch for the fabulous chocolate cake made by Stokes Croft’s Cafe Kino. A slice joined me at my desk many times with a cup of tea, to see me through the afternoon.

So I thought it was about time I made my own special chocolate cake, using Belgium chocolate and fresh mint.

Finely chopped mint runs through the sponge and decorates the top, along with melted chocolate and a drizzle of soya cream. It’s a big cake for those with a passion for chocolate and a hearty appetite!

Belgium Chocolate and Fresh Mint Cake
Makes 1 large cake
Preparation/cooking time 50 mins

330g/12 oz self-raising flour
5 tbsp cocoa powder
225g/8oz caster sugar
1½  tsp bicarbonate of soda
25g/1oz Belgium chocolate, chopped into small pieces
2 sprigs of fresh mint, finely chopped
290ml/10½  fl oz soya milk
100ml /3½ fl oz sunflower oil
2 tbsp soya yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla essence

Topping
100g/3oz Belgium chocolate
1 sprig of fresh mint, chopped
1 tsp soya cream

1. Pre heat your oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6.
2. Sieve dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Then add in chocolate pieces and mint.
3. Measure out soya milk, oil, yoghurt and essence into a jug and mix.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid into the centre. Briskly whisk to form your cake mixture.
5. Grease and line a large cake tin.
6. Spoon in the mixture.
7. Bake for 35-40 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Cool on a wire rack.
9. Melt the chocolate for the topping (in a glass bowl placed in a pan of simmering water) and spoon it over the cake, smoothing over with a spatula. Sprinkle with mint, then drizzle with soya cream. Gently run the end of the skewer through the topping, to give a marble effect. Allow the topping to set.