the-tower

t h e - t o w e r . . .
One of the guys at my work was leaving and had asked me to make a big cake for lots of people to share. I think I perhaps took it a bit too far but the reaction from my colleagues was what I’d aimed at. 

Vegan and not-so-vegan tower cake

It’s made from a basic sponge cake on the bottom iced with chocolate buttercream icing, chocolate drops and marzipan stars. Then vegan chocolate cake (recipe below) with soya buttercream icing and raspberries. Finally, baby vegan cupcakes with the chocolate buttercream icing on top.

Transporting the cakey tower into work was quite tricky and I got arm cramp on the way in but it was far easier carrying an empty tray back home!

for-starters

f o r - s t a r t e r s . . .
I first made these cakes for a friend's birthday. Her flatmate is vegan and I thought it would be nice if she could eat cake...everybody should get to eat cake on birthdays!

The recipe came from a combination of a vegan recipe book I'd seen in the library and a youtube clip!

Vegan chocolate cupcakes with some soya milk and some vegan chocolate icing

Vegan chocolate cupcakes

240 ml soya milk; 1 tbsp vinegar; 150g granulated sugar; 80ml vegetable oil; 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract; ½ tsp orange extract; 140g flour; 45g cocoa; 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda.

Whisk soya milk & vinegar in bowl and allow it to curdle a little.  Add sugar, oil and extract to soya milk and whisk until it's all foamy on top. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa & bicarb. Add the dry mix into the liquid mix in two batches & beat until there are no large lumps.
Pour mix into cake cases & bake for 18 mins at 180C/Gas Mark 4.

It's really easy to make these cakes and they taste delicious. I think it tastes a bit different to a regular chocolate cake and it's definitely lighter...maybe not very 'structurally sound' if you're making a bigger cake and trying to cut it though.
You can safely lick the mixing spoon clean but there is sometimes a slight taste of vinegar (this definitely disappears during cooking)!