What to eat this month
Dairy free chocolate cake with raspberries
You do need to use a good quality dark chocolate for the icing, though it does not need to be as high in cocoa content as for other recipes. A sweeter chocolate works better because of the bicarbonate of soda which can otherwise leave a slightly salty aftertaste.
Serves 12
What you need
- 150ml/16fl oz espresso coffee
- 75ml/3fl oz water
- 75g/3oz vegetable margarine
- 75g/3oz caster sugar
- 15ml/1tbsp golden syrup
- 200g/7oz plain unbleached white flour
- 5ml/1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 25g/1oz cocoa powder
- 45ml/3tbsp soya milk
- 2.5ml/½tsp vanilla essence
For the icing
- 75g/3oz plain cbocolate
- 25g/1oz vegetable margarine
- 275g/9oz icing sugar
For the topping
- 250g/8oz frozen or fresh raspberries
- 30ml/2tbsp caster sugar
Directions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm/8in round cake tin.
- Put the coffee, water, margarine, sugar and syrup in a pan and heat stirring until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the dry ingredients and beat well.
- Stir in the soya milk and vanilla essence.
- Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes until set.
- Slice in half and allow to cool on a wire rack.
- To make the icing, place the chocolate and margarine plus 45ml/3tbsp water in a dish or pan.
- Set this over a saucepan of boiling water until melted.
- Stir well until amalgamated and sift in the icing sugar, beating the mixture until smooth.
- Allow to cool slightly, then spread some onto one half of the cake and sandwich together with the other half.Spread the remaining icing all over the top and sides.
- For the topping, place the raspberries in a pan with the caster sugar and heat very gently until the sugar is melted and the raspberries are just beginning to dissolve.
- Allow to cool slightly and spoon over the centre of the cake only, leaving a surrounding area of cake uncovered.
- The cake is best eaten very fresh or even slightly warm.
© The Vegetarian Society—www.vegsoc.org.
