vegan chocolate cake

 

When I obtained this recipe from the internet, the person who uploaded the recipe touted this to be the best vegan chocolate cake recipe in the world.

My feedback after following the recipe exactly previously:-

(a) the cake was a tad too sweet for my tastebuds.  In fact, MIL (who is diabetic) commented that the cake is sweet.  When she says something is sweet, it means it is really sweet because she has extreme tastebuds (eg. she will add soya sauce to an already salty dish). 

(b) The cake did not rise enough for my liking.

I decided to tweak the recipe. 

After some modification, I am pleased with the end result.  The cake is moist, not overly sweet (but then again, the level of sweetness is ultimately dependant on one's tastebuds, isn't it?) and it rose more.  Is there room for further improvement?  Sure there is.  In life, we always aim to better ourselves.  But one day at a time....

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease and flour an 8" x 4" loaf pan.  Set aside.

3. Sift the self raising flour, baking powder, sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl.  Set aside.

4. Whisk the warm water, vanilla essence, oil and apple cider vinegar in a mixing bowl using a hand whisk.

5. Fold in the flour mixture and stir until blended.

6. Pour into the prepared pan.

7. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

8. Let cake cool on a wire rack.

TIPS

1. All these years, I only use Hersheys cocoa powder.  I have tried other brands but my preference is Hersheys.

2. For the vegetable oil, I use a mixture of canola and sunflower oil.

Ice cream cake

This is an extremely easy recipe that I obtained from a facebook post. However, the first time I attempted this (following the recipe exactly), I failed miserably. The end result was rock hard and the cake did not rise at all.

Today, feeling brave (or rather, it was because I wanted to clear the freezer!), I decided to make a second attempt. Recalling the previous attempt, I tweaked the recipe. This time, the cake rose beautifully.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 cups ice cream (softened)

1 pkt (150g) toddler fruit puree

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease and flour an 8" x 4" baking pan.  Set aside.

3. Sift the self-raising flour with the baking powder in a mixing bowl.

4. Add the ice cream and fruit puree to the flour mixture and whisk using an electric mixer till evenly mixed.

5. Pour into the prepared pan.

6. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

TIPS

1. The creamier the ice cream, the better.

2. Do ensure that the flavour of the ice cream and the flavour of the fruit puree are complementary.

3. The ice cream should be softened before you add it to the flour mixture.  What would happen if the ice cream is not softened enough? Well, you will get "flying batter" all over your kitchen when you switch on the electric mixer! Trust me... the clean up is horrendous! (Yes, this is from personal experience!)