It's a Vegan Cake But Don't Be Scared

It’s a Vegan Cake But Don’t Be Scared
28 July 2015

I love making cakes for my kids to take to school. It reminds me of how special I felt on my birthday, even though I had minimal friends, they made a fuss and it was cool. I don’t have any real memories of coming to school with cake, my mum wasn’t renowned for her baking, more her tuna casserole with potato chips on top.

My kids go to a Buddhist school with a vegan birthday cake policy. I have always been freaked out by any vegan baking recipe. I thought, without eggs or butter, it was impossible to make anything taste delicious and the recipes sounded complicated and full of ingredients I’d never heard of.

Four vegan birthday cakes down and I have found some good simple cakes.

As I was busy baking, my partner’s ex father-in-law appeared in the kitchen. I told him I was baking a vegan cake, I’m pretty sure he thought I was talking about some country near India.

Give it a go, and if you don’t want to, it will always be there for when you’ve run out of eggs and butter.

VEGAN ORANGE CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE ICING

WHAT YOU NEED

The cake:

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• pinch of salt
• ½ cup caster sugar
• ¼ cup sunflower oil
• ¾ cup orange juice
• ½ tsp orange zest

The icing:

• 85g dark chocolate, melted
• ⅓ cup virgin coconut oil, softened
• ⅓ cup warm non-dairy milk
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 ½ cups icing sugar

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C.
2. Sieve flour together with corn starch and salt. Put this mixture aside.
3. Add sugar and oil in a separate bowl, beat until creamy.
4. Pour the orange juice in to the sugar and oil mixture, stir well.
5. Pop in the sieved mixture and orange zest and mix until smooth.
6. Pour the batter greased cake tin and put in the oven for 30–35 minutes.
7. Cool on wire rack.
8. While cooling make the icing. Beat the melted chocolate, coconut oil, milk and vanilla until well combined.
9. Gradually add the icing sugar and stir until you have a fudgy icing mix.
10. Ice your cake.
11. I toasted a few flaked almonds for the top, but you don’t need to be that fancy.