So this is my first dairy-free venture - a surprisingly easy recipe, but so strange having to remind yourself not to add any hint of milk, cream, butter or yoghurt! Basically the only change you must make to the recipe is to swap in dairy-free "butter" for the usual butter/marge of choice. Simple. And there's no change in taste or texture either - I was quite amazed that the chocolate cake tasted - surprise, surprise - like perfectly normal chocolate cake! Filled with raspberries and topped with dairy-free choc-chip buttercream, with a grating of dark chocolate* to top the cake off, this made a gorgeous dessert for my Auntie on her birthday.
*Only dark chocolate is fine for my Auntie to eat - I suppose it depends on the level of your own dairy intolerance. Unfortunately can't guarantee that this cake is suitable for all those dairy intolerant - you'll have to check out the ingredients yourself
*Serves 12*
145g self-raising flour and 30g Bournville cocoa powder (175g floury ingredients total)
175g caster sugar
175g dairy-free butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp (tiny pinch) salt
1 punnet (200g) fresh raspberries
250g+ icing sugar
Dark finely grated chocolate - only 2 or 3 squares needed to make visible difference
175g dairy-free butter
1tsp vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 175', and grease two cake tins (or one larger tin if you're pushed, as I was - I'll elaborate on this later). Cream dairy-free butter and sugar together until smooth, before adding your vanilla and beating in each egg, one by one
2. Sift in all dry ingredients and mix well until smooth. If the cake batter isn't a dark enough colour (creamy latte-coloured batter won't taste very chocolatey when cooked), just add a cheeky extra tbsp cocoa powder - if you must add more than this though, perhaps add a tsp or two of water to loosen the mix
3. Pour the batter into your greased cake tins, place in the preheated oven, and bake for 30-35mins* before testing (if in two tins - will need nearer 45-50mins if in one larger tin) with fork prongs to see if any raw batter sticks (if it does, give it another 5-8mins)
* 4. Make your butter icing whilst the cakes are cooking. Mix together dairy-free butter and icing sugar - gently at first to avoid icing sugar dust flying everywhere - and finally add vanilla extract, and grate a few squares of dark chocolate in. I refrigerated mine as dairy-free butter seems to get a little softer than my usual butter/marge, and I wanted to pipe my icing
5. Decoration: If your cakes are perfectly cooked, great. Sandwich together with 1/3 of icing and raspberries, pipe remaining icing on top, and dot raspberries on the top.
However in my case, I had only one large tin, so my cake was miserably uncooked in the centre. Oops. Solution: scrape out uncooked cake batter, and discard. So now we've got a 6cm(ish) circular hole in the cake's middle, leaving our cake donut-shaped. Don't panic. Place cake on serving platter. Cut remaining cake horizontally into a top and bottom half, before slathering 1/3 of icing into the middle, and sandwiching back together. Now fill the hole in the cake's middle with raspberries, stacking them up until the hole is no longer visible - genius - and the finished effect is, well, quite lovely and most importantly, intentional. Once the cake is entirely cooled, use piping bag (if you have one - otherwise simply smooth icing on) to ice on all remaining frosting in pretty, circular cupcake style (working from cake's edge, inwards), before grating more chocolate over the top*
*If you want posh chocolate shavings, take dark chocolate and either use a speed-peeler across the chocolate's edge, or use the following technique. Place large bar of dark chocolate face down before you on a surface, take a sharp, flat-edged knife and hold horizontally on the chocolate's surface. Holding each end of the knife, gently scrape the knife towards you, pulling shavings of chocolate with it. Please be careful! (Jamie Oliver technique - seen on one of his 30 Minute Meals episodes)
145g self-raising flour and 30g Bournville cocoa powder (175g floury ingredients total)
175g caster sugar
175g dairy-free butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp (tiny pinch) salt
1 punnet (200g) fresh raspberries
250g+ icing sugar
Dark finely grated chocolate - only 2 or 3 squares needed to make visible difference
175g dairy-free butter
1tsp vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 175', and grease two cake tins (or one larger tin if you're pushed, as I was - I'll elaborate on this later). Cream dairy-free butter and sugar together until smooth, before adding your vanilla and beating in each egg, one by one
2. Sift in all dry ingredients and mix well until smooth. If the cake batter isn't a dark enough colour (creamy latte-coloured batter won't taste very chocolatey when cooked), just add a cheeky extra tbsp cocoa powder - if you must add more than this though, perhaps add a tsp or two of water to loosen the mix
3. Pour the batter into your greased cake tins, place in the preheated oven, and bake for 30-35mins* before testing (if in two tins - will need nearer 45-50mins if in one larger tin) with fork prongs to see if any raw batter sticks (if it does, give it another 5-8mins)
* 4. Make your butter icing whilst the cakes are cooking. Mix together dairy-free butter and icing sugar - gently at first to avoid icing sugar dust flying everywhere - and finally add vanilla extract, and grate a few squares of dark chocolate in. I refrigerated mine as dairy-free butter seems to get a little softer than my usual butter/marge, and I wanted to pipe my icing
5. Decoration: If your cakes are perfectly cooked, great. Sandwich together with 1/3 of icing and raspberries, pipe remaining icing on top, and dot raspberries on the top.
However in my case, I had only one large tin, so my cake was miserably uncooked in the centre. Oops. Solution: scrape out uncooked cake batter, and discard. So now we've got a 6cm(ish) circular hole in the cake's middle, leaving our cake donut-shaped. Don't panic. Place cake on serving platter. Cut remaining cake horizontally into a top and bottom half, before slathering 1/3 of icing into the middle, and sandwiching back together. Now fill the hole in the cake's middle with raspberries, stacking them up until the hole is no longer visible - genius - and the finished effect is, well, quite lovely and most importantly, intentional. Once the cake is entirely cooled, use piping bag (if you have one - otherwise simply smooth icing on) to ice on all remaining frosting in pretty, circular cupcake style (working from cake's edge, inwards), before grating more chocolate over the top*
*If you want posh chocolate shavings, take dark chocolate and either use a speed-peeler across the chocolate's edge, or use the following technique. Place large bar of dark chocolate face down before you on a surface, take a sharp, flat-edged knife and hold horizontally on the chocolate's surface. Holding each end of the knife, gently scrape the knife towards you, pulling shavings of chocolate with it. Please be careful! (Jamie Oliver technique - seen on one of his 30 Minute Meals episodes)
Here's a picture - I thought this may be the only chance I get to see my own cake presented on Pizza Express plates, drizzled with raspberry coulis...
;)
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