The Cake That Made Christmas

Baking is how I show people that I care about that. It always has been. Partly to bribe them into liking me and partly to reward them for being amazing humans who deserve all the good thing. Because of this I try out new recipes for cakes and biscuits fairly regularly until I find ‘the one’.

Just a few years ago I, like many people, believed that vegan cooking was dull and tasteless and I was sure that vegan baking would be even worse.

Of course I was wrong.

My best friend went vegan a few years ago and as you can imagine I bake for her quite a lot, or at least have her in mind when I try new things. I had to learn how to make my favourite treats and theirs, vegan friendly. I had to figure out how to make sure all of my friend can eat the same snacks and love them. How can I make sure that these new treats don’t feel as though I’m offering them as a last resort but because it’s really great?

I started off simple, now the easiest baking I do is vegan. The first thing I ever learned to bake was Sugar cookies. My Nana would let me knead the dough and ice them once they were cool, so it only seemed right that the first vegan baking I attempted was Vegan sugar cookies. They have only 4 ingredients and a pinch of salt. They are so easy to make and eat, they just disappear. They are my go to goodie to make for any event.

I’m a big fan of the all in one method, add all the ingredients at once and combine to form a dough at sticks together but doesn’t stick to your hands. Once combined chill for at least half an hour for the best results. However, if you don’t mind the biscuits expanding a little in the oven then you can skip the fridge entirely. On a flat, floured surface, roll the dough out to about 1cm thick and cut into the shapes of your choice.

Biscuits

• 112g Vegan Butter
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 250g All Purpose Flour
• A pinch of Salt
• 2 Tbsp water or non-dairy milk
• You can add some vanilla extract or other flavouring if you choose

Icing

• Icing sugar
• Warm water

If you bake them for 10 minutes at 180⁰c then they are chewy and soft if you bake them a little longer until the tops are just turning brown then they are crisp and give a wonderful biscuity snap. Whichever you choose, chewy or crisp, leave the cookies to cool before icing them. The icing is even easier than the biscuits to make, just combine the icing sugar and water until it’s the thickness you prefer and add any colouring is you feel like it. They are perfect for baking with friends as they are so quick, and you get immediate snacks!

As much as I love these biscuits and I really, really do, my favourite vegan recipe is actually for chocolate cake. It’s moist and chocolaty and for some reason it just hits the spot better than any other chocolate cake I have tried before. It is my favourite chocolate cake recipe of all time. (It even makes lovely coffee cake if you swap the cocoa powder for coffee.) Combine the dry ingredients first and then in a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients. Slowly mix the wet into the dry then pour the batter into you cake tin or cupcake cases.

Cake

• 280g self raising flour
• A pinch of salt
• 3 level tablespoons cocoa powder (or for coffee cake, 3 level tablespoons coffee powered dissolved in just enough water to get rid of all the granules)
• 175g golden caster sugar
• 1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 300ml (1/2 pt) non-dairy milk
• 150ml (1/4 pt) corn oil
• 3 level tablespoons golden syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ganache

• 175g vegan butter
• 340g icing sugar
• 110g cocoa powder at least, more can be added to taste

Just a note, the cake mixture is always really runny and it doesn’t rise a lot.

Bake for half an hour at 180⁰c or until you can pierce the cake with a knife and the blade comes away clean.

This cake has a very special place in my heart. Christmas has always been a very small affair in my family. There aren’t many of us and we aren’t the most sociable people so all of our Christmas traditions involved pyjamas and opening presents together in one bed. That is until a few years back. My best friend and I built our own tradition and we are steadily dragging more and more people into it. Christmas Eve, carols around the village Christmas tree, we don’t sing the words properly, even with them written down on a sheet in front of us and that it the fun of it. But after the singing is done and our fingers and toes are freezing we head back to mine and eat food, vegan of cause, we’ve had curry, we’ve had finger food, but best of all we’ve had yule log. My favourite chocolate cake recipe, flattened and rolled and made festive.

The same recipe as above but baked on a flat baking tray so that it’s no more that 1cm deep. Once it’s bake and out of the oven, while it’s still warm, gently role it up, long side to long side. Make sure the cake is covered with baking paper before rolling or it will stick to itself while cooling (please learn from my mistakes).

Once cooled you can un-role the cake, be gentle it will want to crack. Spread a thick layer of ganache over the cake and re-role it. Now cover it in even more ganache and decorate as you chose, I’m a fan of a light dusting of icing sugar to look like snow. It’s decadent and rich, to the point that it’s almost a bit too much. Absolutely perfect for celebrations.

This cake helped forge a tradition that still stands and expands and will last for more years that I am willing to think about. It allows me to give my friends all the nice things they deserve and bribe them to remain my friends for the next year.

And it’s the favourite chocolate cake of a very fussy chocoholic, me. I hope you enjoy it as much as me.