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–+ servings
chocolate cake
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The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

This cake is light and fluffy, decadently chocolatey, and it has a beautiful flavour profile thanks to the coffee, soy ‘buttermilk’ and apple sauce. I made a ganache to go over it and topped it with crumbled Aero dark chocolate, but you could also tone down the sweetness by simply sifting icing sugar for a snowy effect.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Global
Keyword: baked, birthday
Servings: 10 servings

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 1 cup soy milk (or other plant milk)
  • 1 tbsp white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
  • 2 cups cake flour
  • ¾ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 ½ tsp bicarb
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 ½ tsp instant coffee granules (good quality is better!)
  • ½ cup hot water
  • ⅔ cup apple sauce
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • ½ cup canola oil

For the ganache:

  • ½ cup vegan dark chocolate (or vegan chocolate chips)
  • 3 tbsp coconut cream
  • ⅓ cup powdered sugar (I used caster sugar)
  • ⅓ slab Aero dark chocolate (optional)

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Prepare a 20cm cake pan (or a loaf tin like I used) by greasing it with vegan butter, and then dusting it with cocoa powder (tap out the excess).
  • In a medium bowl, mix the soy milk with the vinegar, and set aside to curdle.
  • Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb and salt into a large bowl and mix well.
  • Dissolve the coffee granules in ½ cup hot water, then add it to the curdled soy milk. Add the apple sauce, sugar and oil, and mix well.
  • Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, and mix until combined (don't overmix!).
  • Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with a cake tester: if it comes out clean, it's done. If not, leave it for another 10 minutes.
  • When done, cool the cake pan on a wire rack. Once it's at room temperature, carefully slide a butter knife around the edge, place a dinner plate on top, and tip the cake out.
  • While the cake is cooling in the cake pan, prepare the ganache.
  • Set up a bain-marie by placing a small saucepan, with 5cm of water, over medium-high heat on the stove, with a glass or stainless steel bowl on top (it should be a little bigger than the saucepan).
  • Break or chop the chocolate up into small pieces, and place in the bowl. Keep an eye on the chocolate as it melts, stirring once in a while. DO NOT add even a single drop of water or other liquid!
  • Once the chocolate is melted, remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the coconut cream, followed by the powdered sugar.
  • Let it cool for 10-15 minutes, it'll thicken a bit, then drizzle it evenly over the cooled cake (which should be out of the pan and on the plate).
  • Crumble the Aero dark chocolate over the cake (optional).
  • Enjoy!