Vegan & Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

This gluten free vegan chocolate cake will blow you away – with how it looks, how it tastes and how incredibly easy it is to prepare. No fuss, no weird fancy ingredients, only an hour of your time…

Ingredients:

DRY:

• 1 cup (120 g) gluten free flour
• 2/3 cup (130 g) caster sugar (Note 1)
• 1/4 cup (30 g) cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda

WET:

• 1/2 cup (120 mL) vegetable oil
• 1 cup (240 mL) non-dairy milk (for instance coconut milk, rice milk or almond milk if not sensitive to nuts)
• For vegan chocolate frosting:
• 1 cup (200 g) coconut cream, divided (Note 2)
• 7 oz (200 g) dark chocolate, chopped

Optional:

• chocolate shavings for decorating
• raspberries for decorating

Instructions:

For gluten free vegan chocolate sponge:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 355 ºF (180 ºC) and grease two 6 inch (15 cm) round cake tins with vegetable oil. You can also line the bottoms with greaseproof/baking paper.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together.
3. Mix the wet ingredients together, and add them to the dry ingredients. Stir well, until you get a smooth cake batter.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the two greased cake tins, smooth out the tops, and bake in the pre-heated oven at 355 ºF (180 ºC) for about 40 minutes or until the tops are springy/bouncy to the touch and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool.

For vegan chocolate frosting:

1. In a saucepan, heat 1/2 cup of the coconut cream until boiling hot.
2. Place the chopped dark chocolate in a heat-proof bowl, and pour over the boiling hot coconut cream. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, then stir it well until you get a glossy, dark, intense chocolate ganache. Allow to cool until only slightly warm.
3. In a separate bowl, place the other 1/2 cup of coconut cream. This should be at room temperature or only very slightly cold. Slowly (a tablespoon at a time), stir the chocolate ganache into the coconut cream. At the end, you should be left with a smooth, easily spreadable frosting ideal for decorating.
4. (If you want a more intensely chocolatey frosting, decrease the amount of coconut cream.)

Assembly:

1. Layer the sponges together with the frosting, like in the pictures above.
2. NOTE: Be sure to work relatively quickly – use the frosting as soon as possible after preparing it, as it tends to firm up slightly on standing, which makes it difficult to spread.
3. Decorate with raspberries and chocolate shavings, or other decorations of choice.
4. Serve & Enjoy!

Storage:

• The gluten free vegan chocolate cake keeps well in a closed container in a cool dry place (the fridge is fine, too) for 3 - 4 days.

NOTES:

• If you’re a vegan who’s concerned about bone char used in refining sugar, you can see a list of companies that don’t use bone-char filters on the PETA website.
• You can get coconut cream by putting coconut milk (with a high coconut content and without too many stabilisers/preservatives) into the fridge for a few hours – without shaking! The coconut milk will separate into coconut cream (that you'll need in this recipe) and coconut water (which is great in smoothies).

Source: theloopywhisk.com