Vegan Chocolate Cake

This is one of the most amazing chocolate cakes I’ve ever eaten! First tried when my friend Rose made it for my birthday last year and last eaten for hers the following month, I decided that it was finally time to make it myself. I’ve also been asked to make a chocolate cake for someone in a week’s time so thought it would be a good idea to have a practise and it’s pretty lucky I did! I’m not sure of the origins of this recipe I just took it from Rose but I do know it was originally in cup measurements which is why all the quantities appear slightly odd.

For making the mixture this recipe is ridiculously simple. Whack it all in a big bowl and beat with an electric handmixer until smooth, job done. You then transfer it to the tins you wish to bake it in. I used two 9inch cake tins but I know Rose has used a square one before and that as worked fine also! Now. Here comes the part where I tried to follow the recipe but just couldn’t bring myself to do it!

The recipe says leave in the oven for 20minutes without opening it at all and then the cake is done. Rose did say to me it would still be moist so I was prepared for that however all but the edges of my cake were still liquid and I just couldn’t take it out like that! So I cooked it for 10 more minutes and then took it out but I must admit, it was still totally soft in the middle. Way beyond anyone’s definition of the word ‘moist’. I then left it to cool of about 10mins before I tried to take it out. ERROR! I basically put my hand through the cake and the liquid inside went everywhere.

After consulting with Rose, it transpired that you’re supposed to leave it in the tin to cool completely before removing the cake which I never ever do and she always always does! I left the other layer in the tin to cool and while it sunk slightly (again, apparently normal!) it did come out without creating a giant hole in the middle. To try and create something yummy out of my mistake I sandwiched the two cakes together with vegan buttercream and filled the hole on top with strawberries. It tastes delicious so while this time was far from perfect, I at least know where I went wrong!

Here is the recipe:

186g butter

450ml soya milk

3 tbsp golden syrup

1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

374g self raising flour

74g cocoa powder

374g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and baseline your tins of choice

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl until you have a smooth batter. Put the mixture in your tins and shake

Lick Your Spoon!

Bake in the oven for at least 20minutes, bake longer at your own discretion! But do not open the door during these first 20 minutes

LEAVE TO COOL IN TIN - very important!

Then ice and decorate how you want!

Lemon Shortbread

Another recipe from the lovely yummly site! I had originally wanted to make a chocolate orange cake but I didn’t have the necessary equipment so I’ve added that to my list of things to do! I did a quick online search looking for something fresh and simple and came across this. I’m a massive fan of shortbread and haven’t made any since my chocolate version back in February. I chose this one because it used real lemons and the use of cornflour and icing sugar suggested it would be nice and light.

And it was! It was hard work again for my mixer though so I think it needs a rest after these last two recipes I made. When making any new recipe it is always a good idea to read the entire recipe before starting. I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before and yet I still haven’t learnt. As most of my recipes are ‘chuck it in a bowl and mix’ I naively thought this would be the same so I started out using my biggest bowl. However, it turns out you are just prepping the dry ingredients in that bowl and they’ll need to be added to a different (preferably your largest bowl) later.

Once you’ve prepared the ingredient in their three separate bowls it’s just a case of added the flour and buttermilk alternately until it’s all thoroughly mixed together. This mixture does need an our to chill in the fridge so also make sure you have time to accommodate that before you start! My rolls weren’t very cylindrical and any roundness they did have was removed when slicing the rolls into the individual biscuits. While they still taste great and the recipe worked really well, I do wish the presentation (as always!) was slightly better so I might work it a little differently in the future.

This is however definitely one for the recipe binder and I will be making it again. I made around 60 little biscuits with this recipe and they’ve lasted about a week in my house now! Perfect with a cup of tea for a little sweetness.

Chocolate and Raspberry Whoopie Pies

Yet another delight from over the pond! I was struggling for baking inspiration when I came across these and couldn’t resist. The recipe was features on a top ten whoopee pie recipe list and is from Gourmet.com. I’ve only eaten them once before and intrigued by the biscuit come cake sandwich parts. As for the filling, super sweet! But upon reading a variety of recipes I realised lots of different fillings are used so I picked one that contained marshmallow fluff as I’m still totally excited about it. While the recipe made a chocolate and vanilla version, I used raspberry marshmallow fluff instead to create these chocolate and raspberry pies.

The sandwich parts are often referred to as ‘cookies’ but to me they are much more cakey in taste and texture once baked. The mixture is however quite stiff once everything is mixed in together and the 25 year old handheld I was using was struggling somewhat towards the end! The recipe said to keep them 2inches apart and after my cookie fiasco I thought I’d better pay attention but mine didn’t seem to spread a whole lot. They also didn’t come out as smooth as I expected and all whoopee pies I’ve seen have been very flat and smooth. Next time I think I’ll make more of an effort to smooth them before they go in with the hope of achieving better presentation!

When I made the filling up, I was a little concerned there wouldn’t be enough to fill each of the sandwiches but it was very deceiving as after filling them twice over there was still enough for me to eat by the tablespoon! This mixture said it made 8 sandwiches in total so I followed it exactly this time to test it but I think in future I will make smaller balls and flatten them more myself with the hope of making more from the mixture!

While there are some presentation issues I will be troubleshooting in future, these taste amazing! The chocolate sandwich is not overly sweet so nicely balances the very sweet raspberry mallow filling. Definitely something I will make again and I’ll be adapting the recipe to try out different varieties too.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gorgeously gooey in the centre with a slight crunch round the outside, perfect chocolate chip cookies! I came across this recipe on yummly while looking online for the pecan cookies I did 2 posts ago and decided I needed to try it out. A rainy afternoon was the perfect opportunity and they were excellent with a cup of lady grey tea and a Disney movie!

These are ideal comfort food and it’s, yet again, a really simple recipe that yields around 30 cookies! At many stages during this recipe the mixture looks less than appealing but I promise it will be all good in the end. Also, once you’ve worked those muscles and mixed in all the flour and chocolate chips the mixture will look a little crumby. Don’t worry though because once you put it into balls it will hold just fine. I flattened my cookies a little when they had 5minutes left in the oven to help them spread as this is an issue I always seem to have with my cookies.

This recipe is very sweet, the chocolate chips actually help balance it out if you can believe it. It’s an American recipe and so typically has an awful lot of sugar in it. If I made these again I might try leaving out half a cup and seeing how that went as while I do love sweet things, I’d rather avoid having my teeth fall out or develop diabetes as I’m sure all you would too.

While I prefer my cookies warm, these stay soft on the inside even after they’ve cooled and you can always pop them in the microwave for a bit for added gooeyness! I also think this mixture would last a while in the fridge like the pecan cookies and so you could always cook yourself a couple whenever you fancy them.

Mini Victoria Sponges

These are so cute! I saw the tin to make these ages ago and thought they were a great idea, perfect for tea parties! I finally bought it the other week and so decided to try it out this weekend. The tin is by My Kitchen and is available from Lakeland. I got it as part of their buy one get one half price offer or else it’s a little expensive for a tin!

After reading the reviews on the website I found a post that said a 3 egg mixture was the right one for this tin so that’s what I used. If you use this tin make sure you grease the holes really well or else the loose bottoms will take the bottoms off the cake. Also be careful you make sure the loose bases are properly centred or else some of the mixture will fall through the bottom which you can see happened to one of mine!

I originally anticipated that each cake would be a layer so 12 holes would make 6 mini cakes. They rose a lot higher than I thought so I cut the tops off to make them flat. In hindsight, I think I should have tried cutting each cake in half and sandwiching it back together and so made 12 cakes as the 6 I made are pretty high! I just used jam in between mine and a sprinkle of icing sugar on top, keeping it simple but you can always add some buttercream or even fresh cream to make it a bit fancier.

I love the idea of these but am not totally satisfied with the outcome just yet so this is something I’m definitely going to be working on as I do think this bake is perfect for an afternoon treat with a cup of tea!