It's been a long time coming and that's because I've been spending quite a bit of time doing

experiments and baking all different vegan cakes so I could develop a recipe that I was

actually happy with.

This is quite a fudgey sort of cake - if you're after a more of a traditional sort of airy

cake texture I'll put another recipe on the website.

To make this cale though, you will need flour, sugar, cocoa powder, flax seed meal, vegetable

oil, vanilla, baking powder and water. And I'll put all the recipe quantities on

the howtocookthat.net website for you and I'll link to that below. Add the sugar and

cocoa powder. Now I'm using cocoa powder and the main difference

between this and cacao powder is that cacao powder is made from unroasted beans and the

cocoa powder is made from roasted cocoa beans.

And so because of that the cacao powder has a much higher Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capability

- which basically means it has a lot more of the good stuff in it.

But we are going to bake the cake in the oven. So I'd only suggest using the cacao powder

in recipes where you are not using heat because it's a lot more expensive and if we're heating

it anyway we are going to reduce that amount of good stuff in it.

But it is important to say though even normal cocoa powder still has very high amount of

the good stuff compared to other foods.

Add the flax seed meal. Now this is replacing the eggs. Some vegan recipes use apple sauce

but I experimented with that and found it justsunk in the middle and it's just adding

more sugar to the recipe. While the flaxseed meal gave it a bit more structure so it had

a better shape to it.

Add in the oil, water, vanilla and baking powder. And mix it together until just combined,

you don't want to overmix it.

Pour that into two round a lined baking tins and bake at 180C (350F).

For the frosting you'll need almond milk and vegan chocolate. Just check the ingredients

on dark chocolate and find one like this that does not contain any milk in it at all.

Heat them together in the microwave in 20 second bursts stirring well each time until

you get a nice smooth ganache. And once that is good and it looks like this put that vegan

ganache in the fridge to chill.

Once the cake looks ready, pull them out of the oven and insert a knife into the centre.

Now if that knife comes out clean they are done.

Run your knife around the outside and then just leave that to cool in the tin.

Now take some icing sugar and dairy free margarine again just check your ingredients to make

sure you find one that you're happy with - and whip them together. Once it is smooth add

in the ganache that we just made and whip it through to make a beautiful rich vegan

chocolate frosting.

Now if you don't want it quite so rich you can use a bit less ganache but Iike it to

be quite chocolatey so I add a bit in there.

Place one of your cooled cakes onto a cake stand and add a generous scoop of frosting.

Spread it out to make it level and then add the other cake on top.

Then use a spatula to cover the top and sides of the cake all the way around. And put that

in the fridge to chill.

Once it has chilled give it a second thin coat of frosting and take your time doing

this, we want to make it look really nice and neat.

Now to make our decorations for on top. Melt some more of the vegan chocolate and spread

it out on some acetate.

Once it is just starting to set draw lines across it using a knife. And yes you will

need to temper this chocolate if it contains cocoa butter - you can find my tempering video

on the chocolate playlist on the How To Cook That Channel.

Then immediately place a rolling pin in the centre and wrap the chocolate up and around

it and press the ends together. You migh want to put something on it to weight it down so

you don't have to hold it.

Take a thin strip of acetate and cover it in chocolate then carefully sit that inside

a baking tin to make a ring. Once that is set spread out a circle of chocolate onto

acetate a little bit bigger than your baking tin. Then add the ring of chocolate that we

just made, make sure you take that acetate off it before you put it on.

On the inside of the ring sprinkle some sliced almonds because they will go nicely with the

dark chocolate and add a bit of crunch.

Then once that starts to set run your knife around the outside of the ring.

To make our bow, remove the acetate from the curls and gently break them apart.

Arrange six of them in a circle and then add some melted chocolate into the centre.

Now add another six curls in the gaps in between each one of the ones that you put there for

the first layer. Then add a few more to the centre, just add as many as you can get to

fit so it looks like a full bow.

Take off the extra chocolate from around the lid. Then carefully place the bow on top,

and if any break off just add them back into place using a little bit of melted chocolate.

Pile up fruit on top of your cake over to one side. Then rest the lid on top of that.

And there you have a beautiful vegan chocolate cake.

Give this video a thumbs up, subscribe to How To Cook That for more cakes, chocolate

and desserts, click here for the recipe, here for my YouTube channel and here for more cakes.

This cake was requested by Natalie

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Emma Gabriela

gem gem cloodylemonade

Sanne Brander Samantha

Rebecca Marren

P Fry Felicia

Hayley Danielle

Mary-ori Danny

Jenny Book Worm

Nyssa Mya

Barg-ish-ree Safs life

Elise Laurence

my name is Mich-eel karen

Damien Alice

Snowbunny Minto

Shannan 05lotbra22

paige fawn

blake ida

bani adelle

marike blue iro

And heaps more

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