Martha's Vegan Chocolate Cake

January might now be better known as Veganuary, (what a time to be alive) and while I failed the challenge just one week into the month, I'm still enjoying trying out loads of new recipes and foods. Having been veggie (kind of) for about a year now, there are two things I look for when testing a vegan recipe: 1. It doesn't have loads of weird ingredients 2. It tastes as good as its non-vegan alternative. This recipe for vegan chocolate cake by GBBO's Martha met both criteria and with my vegan-sceptic family going in for seconds I knew it was a winner. 

If you've never baked a cake before, let alone a vegan one, trust me on this, it's foolproof. It probably goes without saying but you can decorate it with whatever you like – raspberries and dark chocolate is one of my favourite combinations but curls of dark chocolate, desiccated coconut or crushed Oreos would be just as delicious.

Martha's Vegan Chocolate Cake

Ingredients for the sponge

350ml oat milk (or whatever non-dairy milk you have to hand)

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

250g caster sugar

150ml sunflower oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

225g white spelt flour (or plain flour)

75g cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients for the icing:

200g 70% dark chocolate (check the ingredients to make sure it doesn't contain milk) broken into small pieces

75ml oat milk

50g coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and line two round, nonstick cake tins with baking parchment.

2. Whisk the oat milk in a jug with the apple cider vinegar, leave for two minutes to thicken then stir in the sugar, oil and vanilla.

3. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir together with a fork or metal spoon. Make a well in the centre and gradually add the wet ingredients, whisking until a smooth batter forms. 

4. Quickly divide the batter between the two tins and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes (this will depend on your oven - mine took 23 in total). 

5. Allow the cakes to cool a little in the tins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool they are ready to be iced.

6. For the icing put the dark chocolate, oat milk, coconut oil and vanilla into a small saucepan. Heat gently and stir until the mixture is melted and smooth. Beat with a whisk then leave for 15 minutes before icing your cake.

Store in an airtight container and eat within three days – mine didn't last that long though!

The original recipe for this cake can be found here.