Vegan Chocolate Cake

Hello my little chocolate bunnies!

I hope you survived Easter all very well, and now that both Serbian orthodox and German Easter are over I´m sure you can all fit some MORE CHOCOLATE into you! Because I am about to share the best vegan chocolate cake I ever made with you! Yes, it is also the first vegan chocolate cake I ever made but errr…pssst. Plus: It is secretly healthy or at least not as sugary and buttery as other chocolate cakes with this much chocolate flavour, AND it is easy AND you maybe don´t even have to go shopping for it since it doesn´t contain any extravagant ingrediences. 

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

But before that, a short update on life here.

I´m back in Berlin and today is the first day of the Summer Semester. I don´t have many seminars this semester, but that means I can use my nearly three free days off a week (yes! Three! One is one lecture, at 8am. Might just go back to bed after that) to work and also finish my home assignments I still work on from last semester.

Slowly, spring has also arrived in the city, and everything is pastel green or rosé springing back to life from what seems like an eternity of hibernation and it seems like I forgot how sunshine feels like on my skin. Time to get the sunscreen out (because the smell is my happy summer smell!) and hit the cafés, restaurants, and streets on bike and feet ;) Which is exactly what we have been doing;

And now – The Vegan Chocolate Tarte. Ready?

found on Southerninlaw.com

• 3/4 cup plain flour/GF flour *see note for other options  (93,75g)
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder (40g)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce (252g)
• 1/3C unrefined cane sugar/brown sugar** (75g)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Frosting: 
This makes a small amount of frosting as the cake doesn’t need much.

• 1  1/2 tbsp lite Nuttelex or other dairy free butter/margarine alternative (I used normal margarine we had)
• 1  1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup sifted icing sugar (62,5g)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 180°C/355°F.

Grease and line a small cake tin (or cupcake tins)

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate medium mixing bowl combine applesauce, sugar and vanilla and pour into dry ingredients.
Note: if your mix is not wet enough, add in some milk or water until it reaches a thick cake batter consistency. Your climate/temperature/flour etc can all contribute to differences in consistency so use your best judgement!

Mix until just combined and pour into cake tin.

Bake for 20-35 minutes or until cooked through and a skewer inserted removes clean. If making cupcakes, cook for ~10-15 minutes or until cooked through.

For the frosting, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in a mixer, adding in the cocoa and vanilla and mixing until combined. If needed, add a couple of drops of milk/non dairy milk until your desired consistency is reached.

*Flour Options
With the flour, you can use:
Gluten free or regular plain flour 

• 1/4 + 1/8C oat flour and 1/4 + 1/8C plain flour (GF or regular)
• 1/4 + 1/8C wholewheat flour and 1/4 + 1/8C plain flour 
• 1/4 + 1/8C buckwheat flour and 1/4 + 1/8c gluten free flour 

• I also regularly use Organ Buckwheat Pancake mix (which has no added sugar) for a light gluten free cake with some added nutrition

Woop!

Mine looked like this: