Vegan, wheat & dairy free Chocolate Cake.

Rich, moist, and luxuriously dark. This recipe is quite remarkable, being vegan, wheat and dairy free! It’s fantastically easy to make, and is a welcome contrast to heavy, cloying chocolate cakes which I for one am not a fan of. If you are, whip up a vanilla frosting with vegan butter for the filling and / or top!

Perfect, too, as a pudding with vegan vanilla ice cream – the silky smooth ice compliments the cocoa rich cake deliciously.

Dry Ingredients

• 3 cups of oats – if using homemade, make sure it’s very finely ground
• 1 1/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

wet ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups water
• 1 cup non-dairy milk
• ¼ cup (+ 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil for tins)
• ½ cup coconut sugar
• ½ cup pure maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Frosting if wished, and jam for filling (I used home grown apple & blackcurrant low sugar compote)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two 9-inch round cake pans, or coat with oil, then dust with cocoa powder.
2. In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients: oat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. Heat the water & milk in a microsafe bowl in 10-second blasts until just warm, to prevent the melted coconut oil from solidifying when mixed.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients: water, milk, coconut oil, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Whisk until just incorporated, making sure no flour patches remain.
6. Pour the batter evenly into your prepared cake pans. Tap the pans several times to level & release any bubbles. Bake for 22-26 minutes. Test with a toothpick—it should come out clean when done.
7. Place the pans on a cooling rack to cool for 25 minutes. Then loosen the cake by gently running a plastic knife around the edge. Shake the pan a few times until you hear the cake pop loose. Place a large plate or cooling rack upside down, on top of one cake pan. Grasping both the pan and the plate tightly, flip the cake onto the plate/rack. Repeat with second layer.
8. Allow cake to cool completely before filling and / or frosting.
9. Store in an airtight container. Use a cake slice to serve, as it is crumbly… and each crumb is totally delicious!

This recipe is originally from the Beaming Baker, click here.

I first made this satisfying cake when Gilly, a friend invited herself and her husband for tea in the garden after a walk at Knepp; the amazing 3500 acre rewilding project nearby, owned by Charlie Burrell and his appropriately named wife, author and conservationist, Isabella Tree.

Gilly is a hugely inspiring vegan and Macrobiotic therapist. I’ve learnt a lot from her about the inextricable relationship between diet and every aspect of physical and mental health. I was so pleased to find a recipe that would suit her vegan, plant based diet – and also my ethos of not chasing around supermarkets for ingredients with names that I can’t pronounce, let alone find on the shelves of my local store! Gilly seemed delighted, and we’ve enjoyed the leftovers hugely: all good!

Sharing with Angie and the Fiesta Friday bunch – a good recipe for celebrating mothers on this Mother’s Day in the US… and Happy Fiesta #379!

Woody Harrelson, actor: 

“In this world that is spinning madly out of control,
we have to realize that we’re all related.
We have to try to live harmoniously.”