Hello Vegan Baking: Cherry Chocolate Cake

You will be surprised (at least I was not expecting that) but vegan baking is actually not hard and does not necessarily require fancy ingredients that are hard to find. So if you have a birthday or another occasion that needs a cake this recipe is worth reading!

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Following ingredients will be needed:

• 300g plain flour
• 100g cocoa powder (It's normally vegan, but double check just in case. I got mine from Lidl, so you definitely do not need organic shops in order to get it)
• 300g sugar
• 1/2 cup of dry grated coconut
• 2 tea spoons of baking powder
• 1 tea spoon of salt
• 400ml of coconut milk
• 150ml olive oil
• 10-12 large table spoons of cherry jam (same story as with coconut powder - normally vegan but double check)
• some vanilla extract
• fruits and cake decorations (I was making a girly birthday cake, therefore it's quite pink. I think it would look best just with glaze and few cherries on top though)

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The instructions for this cake are rather fun than hard

First of all you need to mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl (flour, coco powder, sugar, salt, baking powder and coconut shavings). After doing this put the mixing bowl aside, you won't need it for a while. 

Set the hob on medium and pour olive oil as well as coconut milk into a saucepan. I know, you going to think that this is extremely weird combo... I thought the same! It will look odd at first, but believe me, it will become one hell of a cake soon! Wait for the mixture to boil and then start adding cherry jam, continuously simmering. Turn the hob off and stir for couple more minutes. Add vanilla extract and let the mixture to cool off for 10-15 minutes. I was preparing decorations for the cake in the mean time, but I think that this cake looks good with minimal decor or even with only sugar powder on top. 

Now it's time to mix hot and dry ingredients together. Start pouring olive oil/coconut milk mixture into the mixing bowl, and mix it very well. If you have a blender you can use that as well, but you will be okay with spoon only :)

The final step is the simplest one - pour half of mixture into the baking tray (as you can see I used round cake tray, but you can experiment with shapes if you want) and then place some more jam on top. Pour in the rest of the mixture onto the tray and place it in the pre-heated 185C oven for 50-60 minutes. 

Once cake is baked, cover it with cling film and leave it to rest for couple hours. Decorate it in a way that you prefer and... it's ready to be served. 

P. S. Created by vegans but suitable for everyone :) By the way, we were celebrating my birthday, but I bought one non-vegan cake as well, just incase because some people are a bit sceptical about veganism. However, everyone loved this dairy-free egg-free Chocolate cake as much as the one filled with dairy and eggs. 

P.P.S. I made a bit too much mixture, so I poured excessive amount into muffin baking tray and ended up with 6 lovely dark chocolate vegan muffins. So if you want to use this recipe for cupcakes of muffins, you are welcome :) For large muffins bake it in 180C for 30 minutes, and for little cupcakes - 180C 15 minutes

Enjoy!
With love, VK