This chocolate-raspberry vegan cake is so scrumptious my crowd of French dairy-eaters couldn’t tell that it was not made with butter and eggs. I tweaked the recipe from Jamie Oliver’s recipe once I found out that my multi-allergies friend would be in the crowd. The next step, I suppose, would be to turn it into a clean-eating recipe and I’m sure it would not be hard. But here it is in all its glory.
I used this organic margarine and it’s tasty enough to spread on toast.
You can see it even has the look and consistency of butter.
But once you add the soy yoghurt, it sort of loses that gorgeous cake batter appearance.
No worries though. When you add the sugar and cocoa powder, the cake batter starts to ressemble something much more similar to what you are used to.
One deviation I made from the original Jamie Oliver recipe was in using chia seeds to imitate the binding agent of egg. I let it soak in the almond milk and stirred it every couple of minutes while making the batter to prevent it from clumping together.
Another deviation was to use a teaspoon of xanthan gum instead of a half. And a third was to melt an entire dark chocolate bar and add that to the frosting (with some extra confectioner sugar and almond milk).
The batter is gluey and I was worried the first time I made it. I was sure it was a disaster.
What a surprise to find moist springy cakes!
The first time I made it, I also used less raspberries. As a result, I chopped them up to make them go further, and that allowed the top layer to sit more securely on the bottom. This time I used more berries and kept them whole.
It was gorgeous, but didn’t allow the cake to nestle quite as easily. Here’s the first attempt where I could actually frost the sides. (Please ignore my chunky chocolate shavings. I wasn’t intending to blog about this cake when I made it the first time).
Here’s the second attempt where the frosting didn’t quite fill in the gap between the layers.
But with a little chocolate shavings and the most perfect berries to decorate the top, this cake is fit for a king.
A gluten-free vegan-eating king.
Who is a huge fan of tangy raspberries
smothered in ooey-gooey chocolate.
- Cake batter:
- 300 grams organic margarine (11 oz)
- 200 grams soy yoghurt (3.5 oz)
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 2 t vanilla
- 2 t baking powder (use gluten-free if there is intolerance to gluten)
- 1 t xanthan gum
- 1 Tablespoon chia seeds
- 6 Tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
- ½ cup plus 1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder
- 3 cups flour
- Filling plus frosting:
- 2 cups fresh raspberries
- 100 grams dark chocolate
- 3 cups confectioner's sugar
- 100 grams margarine (3.5 oz)
- 2 Tablespoons soy yoghurt (7 oz)
- 3-6 Tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
- 100 grams of dark chocolate as shavings.
- Butter and flour (with margarine and GF flour) two round cake pans.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F.
- Beat the margarine, sugar, and so yoghurt.
- Mix the chia and almond milk and stir every once in awhile.
- Add to the margarine-sugar mix everything but the flour and almond milk/chia.
- When everything is beat together, alternate the flour and almond milk and mix.
- Divide mixture into 2 pans and bake for 20 minutes (turn the pan after 12).
- Test with a knife to make sure the inside is cooked, and if not, give it a few minutes.
- Flip the cakes on to a cooling rack and when cool, make the frosting.
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave for a minute, and in 15 second intervals after that if you need more time.
- Add the confectioner sugar, chocolate, margarine and yoghurt together and beat into a frosting. If it's stiff, add the almond milk one tablespoon at a time to get the right consistency so you can spread it.
- Put the cake on the platter, spread the frosting, and add most of the crushed raspberries.
- Put the other layer on, cover the rest with frosting, and put decorative raspberries on top.
- Shave about 100 grams of chocolate and spread that over the rest of the cake.
WOW.
I hate to ask this again..
but is there anything you cannot do?!
I want the entire cake, please! xx
It looks fit for a king. Organic margarine?? That’s a new one for me.
You have convinced me, even though I love gluten and dairy.
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Yum! Pinning this for future reference. Off of sugar at the moment. 🙁
Oh, Jennie: this? with some coffee and fellowship? what a morning that would be!
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