Food Again: Vegan Chocolate Cake

January 27, 2013 by Heidi Cullinan | 10 Comments

I woke this morning to a funky weather front, a sore body, and a deep craving for cake. So I made some. I did a variation on this recipe, using their ingredients but not doing crazy things like mixing them in the pan. WTF. Here it is, with traditional Heidi commentary.

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup hot brewed coffee
• 2/3 cup hot water
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup sunflower oil
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Instructions

The instructions on the original recipe tell you to mix things up in the pan. I would do this only if I gun were held to my head.

Armed with logic and reason and a mild sense of how food chemistry works, I first poured the flour, cocoa, soda, and salt into a sifter and ran them through three times. Yes, three times, because instead of a pile of cake-whatever I had a thoroughly blended fine pale brown powder. What I did was put the sifter over a bowl, cranked it through, put the sifter in the mixer bowl, poured it in and ran it again. Then I poured it back and ran it through one last time and let it sit while I did the next bit.

I put the sugar, vanilla, vinegar and oil in the mixer and ran it until the sugar was wet, then added the coffee and water until everything was thoroughly combined and the sugar dissolved. One could use a full cup of coffee or full cup of hot water; I went with the third/two-thirds split because I wanted the flavor of the coffee but knew my daughter wouldn’t like too much of it. Proceed as it pleases you.

Now I added the dry ingredients–you could do it in batches, but with all the water it was so wet I didn’t see it mattering, so in it all went. I let it whisk up well for a few minutes, sprayed my 8×8 pan, and poured it in.

30 minutes at 350F really did this up a treat. It rose nicely and the toothpick came out clean. Beautiful even texture all around.

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

• 1/4 c Earth Balance margarine
• 1/4 c cocoa powder
• 1 c? powdered sugar
• 4T? Eden soymilk

So, there are ??s for the last two because I confess to eyeballing them. I was operating off a recipe that was clearly for a 9×13 cake, so I fudged. I softened the margarine in the microwave, dumped it into the bowl, added the cocoa, and then set to work making it look like frosting. I’d start with 1c of powdered sugar and 2T of soymillk and keep adding the two in small bits until it’s as sweet as you want and as thick as you want. Frosting is not an exact science in my opinion. What you want is consistency. So as soon as it’s sweet enough, and will spread without being lumpy, you’re gold.

I added some sprinkles on top, and ta-da, it was great. Have already eaten a piece and am actively convincing myself I don’t need a second one. I’m sure that argument will last at least ten minutes.