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First off, this cake is amazing. I’m not a fan of vegan baking in general, since the texture often seems gummy or rubbery. This cake, however, is the exception. It is chocolately, light, has a superb texture, and the cleanup is easy peasy, since the whole thing is mixed in its baking pan, literally taking six minutes. The recipe is from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day, a fantastic vegetarian cookbook.
The one unsual thing about this recipe is that it uses the reaction of the baking soda and vinegar to provide the leavening. Science!
Six-Minute Vegan Chocolate Cake or Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1½ cups flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup water or cold coffee (coffee helps bring out the chocolate flavour of cocoa)
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 Tbsp white vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl (if you would rather make a single cake, mix these ingredients in an ungreased 8 inch square or 9 inch round cake pan).
- In a 2 cup measuring cup, mix the oil, water or coffee, and vanilla. Stir this wet mixture into the dry ingredients until smooth.
- Drizzle the vinegar over the cake batter, and stir until all the white swirls disappear (these white swirls are the vinegar reacting with the baking soda, which provides the leavening to this cake).
- Divide the batter among the muffin cups (or pour into the cake pan). Bake for 15-20 minutes for cupcakes, or 25-30 minutes for a cake. Cool on a wire rack.
- Serve as is, or with a vegan icing. I normally will mix together about 1 cup confectioner's sugar, 1 Tbsp melted margarine, ½ tsp vanilla extract, and up to 1 Tbsp water. Stir until smooth, then ice the cupcakes.
I would love to see more vegan recipes and will definitely try this one. What is your favorite source of vegan cooking/recipes? Thanks for your great posts!
Thanks Lia! We will try to feature more vegan recipes in the future. To be honest, we don’t really have pure vegan cookbooks, but most vegetarian recipes can be easily adapted. Also, a lot of our favourite Japanese food is vegan, which we need to start sharing!