Best chocolate cake
Equipment
- 3x 8-inch round cake pan [1]
- Hand mixer or Stand mixer
- Pipping bag
- Angled palette knife
Ingredients
Chocolate cake
- 1 cup soy milk
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 120 ml water at room temperature
- 140 g vegan butter
- 175 g sugar
- 120 ml hot coffee [2]
- 300 g apple sauce [3]
- 1 tsp vanilla powder [4]
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 280 g cream flour sifted [5]
- 86 g cocoa powder unsweetened sifted
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- dash salt
Chocolate buttercream
- 200 g vegan butter
- 325 g sugar
- 57 g cocoa powder unsweetened sifted
- 40 g dark chocolate 85% melted [6]
- 1 tsp vanilla powder [4]
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 30 ml soy milk
Instructions
Chocolate cake
- Preheat the oven at 180°C.Line cake pans with baking paper, grease and powder them with flour.
- Pour 1 cup of soy milk in a glass then add the cider vinegar and the lemon juice. Let it curdle for about 5 minutes.
- In a bowl add the coffee and the butter. Let the butter melt [7].Then stir together the sugar, the apple sauce, the vanilla powder, the vanilla extract and the water.
- Mix together the sifted flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add the liquid mix to the dry one and gently stir together with a spatula.
- Pour the dough evenly in the 3 baking pans.
- Bake in the oven (middle section) for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.Once baked, let the cake cool down a few minutes before removing from the pan.The cake must be completely cooled before dressing with the buttercream.
Buttercream
- Cream the butter with a hand mixer or the paddle attachment of a stand mixer until smooth and fluffy.
- Gradually beat in the icing sugar until fully incorporated.
- Gradually beat in the cocoa until fully incorporated.
- Beat in the melted chocolate (once cooled).
- Beat in the vanilla powder and the vanilla extract.
- Pour the 30ml of milk and beat again for 1 or 2 minutes.The buttercream should be smooth and glossy.
- Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag [8] and keep into the fridge until the cakes are totally cooled down.
- Then start by pipping a ¼ of the buttercream on top of one layer. Then put the second layer and use another ¼. Place the third layer and use the rest of the buttercream to frost the top and the sides of the cake using an angled palette knife.
Notes
[1] If you don't have 3 cake pans, you will have to bake them separately.
[2] This is optional, if you don't want to use coffee you can replace it by hot water.
[3] If you don't have apple sauce at hand, you can replace it by another fruit sauce, or plain vegan yogurt (the texture and taste of the cake might change a little).
[4] If you don't have vanilla powder you can add more vanilla extract.
[5] If you don't have cream flour you can use cake flour or plain flour + 1 tbsp of cornflour + 1/2 tsp of baking powder.
[6] Once the chocolate is melted leave it aside a couple of minutes to cool down.
[7] To help the butter melt you might need to microwave the mix a few seconds at a time.
[8] For a naked look there is no need for a nozzle. If you plan making decoration as well you may wish to use the adequate nozzle.
[9] In order to get the best result the buttercream needs to stay a couple of minutes out of the fridge before using it to frost the cake.