Decadent Vegan Victoria Sponge Cake

Hi guys!

 

I had recently made a Victoria sponge cake from the book Naughty Vegan Cupcakes with my own twist which turned out amazingly tasty so I think it definitely deserves a blog post.

 

 

In the original recipe there is no chocolate icing but I had some left from making Koffiekoeken (post to follow soon) so I decided to use it on top of the cake.

 

Here's what you will need for the cake:

 

400 g self raising flour

240 g caster sugar

2 tsp baking powder

400 ml dairy free milk, I used Kara coconut milk which is NOT like regular coconut milk

160 ml rapeseed oil

2 tbsp vanilla extract

 

For the buttercream icing:

 

75 g dairy free margarine

75 g vegetable fat like Stork

1 tbsp vanilla extract

750 g icing sugar

60 ml dairy free milk, Kara coconut milk for me again

 

For the chocolate icing you need:

 

125 g dairy free dark chocolate

100 g sifted icing sugar

60 g dairy free margarine

4 tbsp. cold water

 

And these are the extras:

 

Strawberry jam

Icing sugar

Fresh strawberries

 

Okay so now for the actual work, grease two round cake tins and preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

 

 

 

Then grab yourself a big bowl and mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder.

 

 

 

To that, add the coconut milk, rapeseed oil and vanilla extract until it's just combined and tap the bowl onto the surface a few times to get the air out.

 

 

 

Half the batter goes into each of the cake tins. Now I only had one cake tin, so I baked them one at a time and I also made the mixture one at a time so I halves the ingredients.

 

 

 

While one was cooling down on the rack I made the second one.

 

 

 

 

 

So however you decide to do it, bake the dough for about 20-22 minutes until you can put a thin knife through it and it comes out clean and not sticky. Then let both sponge cakes cool down completely on a rack.

 

 

 

Once these bad boys have cooled down, you're ready to top one of the caked with the Buttercream icing. I made half the recipe below because I didn't top the cake off with icing but with chocolate, I 'only' used icing in the middle but even that was plenty of icing so if you like your cakes to be super sweet, then do the full recipe. Otherwise, go for half

 

To make 2x the Buttercream icing:

 

With a mixer, mix together the margarine, vegetable fat and vanilla until it's just combined. Then add half the icing sugar and 60 ml Kara coconut milk slowly until it's combined. Once that's done, just add the remaining icing sugar and whisk slowly until it's combined and smooth. If it's not smooth enough, then add more icing sugar. If it's too stiff, then add some more milk.

 

 

 

So now that you've topped one half of the cake with the 1x the icing sugar, spread a generous layer of jam onto it and then put the second sponge cake on top of this gorgeous mess to close it up.

 

 

 

Now it's time to make the chocolate icing:

 

Now you basically need a bain-marie or a double boiler. The way I do this, is I pour hot water into a pot on a low/medium heat, then I put my sieve on top of it (but it shouldn't be touching the water level in the pot) and then I put a bowl in the sieve which looks like this:

 

 

 

So now break 125 grams of dark chocolate or you can use chocolate chips which is what I did.

 

 

 

Melt that down slowly without burning it. As long as you keep your bain-marie on a low to medium heat and you keep stirring, you should be fine.

 

 

When the chocolate has melted down completely, sift the icing sugar (in this case, I whisked it) and slowly add it into the chocolate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's going to feel like it's never going to mix but it will, keep mixing it in. In the mean while, put 60 grams of margarine in a bowl and slowly mash it.

 

 

 

When the icing sugar has mixed with the chocolate, add the margarine into it.

 

 

 

When that is done, finally slowly mix the 4 tablespoon of cold water through the mixture and pour it onto the cake while it's lukewarm.

 

 

 

So at this point, all that is left for us to do is to top the chocolate icing with strawberries cut in half and when the chocolate icing has cooled down and set, you can top it off with sifted icing sugar.

 

 

 

 

We had people over when I made this cake and I can tell you that it didn't even survive for 5 hours. It was insanely good and I got complimented on my cooking skills even though I've just been following a recipe, being awesome at it at the same time :)

 

I hope you guys enjoyed this post. If anything is unclear or you want to ask me something, fire away!

 

Take care!

 

Tuba

 

XX

 

Vegan Bounty Bars...Better Than The Original

Hi guys!

I hope you are all enjoying Easter. I've recently been having these cravings for decent chocolate bars like Bounties which are my favourites but as you might now, they aren't vegan. I kind of got bored of eating dark chocolate all the time. Not that it's not tasty, but you know how it goes, if you eat too much of the same thing for a period of time, you get sick of it, yes....even chocolate... It might have something to do with it being Easter and the abundance of chocolate everywhere.

Anyway, I had some experience in melting and properly tempering chocolate so it doesn't spoil so I was pretty confident that I could pull off making Bounty bars, and I did. They are so.. freaking... delicious... I can't even stay away from them.

Let me show you a glimpse:

They don't look as neat as the original but I promise they taste so much better without all the preservatives and crap in it.

You can adjust the recipe to what you have at home. I will also tell you exactly what I used just as a reference. Here is what you need:

coconut filling:
1 can of full fat coconut milk. I used Pride coconut milk which I also use to make whipped cream.
2-3 tablespoons rapeseed oil but you can use any kind you want as long as it hasn't got a strong flavour. I used rapeseed oil.
4-5 tablespoons agave nectar/maple syrup, basically the liquid sugar of your choice. I used Clarks maple syrup blended with carob fruit syrup.
2 cups desiccated coconut. I used the Sainsburys organic one.
Just a pinch of salt. I used Himalayan pink salt.

For the chocolate, use at least 300 grams of any kind of vegan dark chocolate you want. I have used the Sainsburys Taste The Difference Cook's Belgian Dark Chocolate Chips.

What you want to do first, is to pop all the ingredients for the coconut filling apart from the desiccated coconut together and mix it over a low heat until everything is blended well. After that's done, stir in the desiccated coconut and leave it for a minute or two.

At this point, you can line a container with baking parchment and put your filling in the container and leave it for an hour. After one hour, come back to it, cut it into rough chunks with enough space between them and pop them in the freezer for several hours so they get very hard.

This is how they look when they get out:

Now you are ready to prepare the chocolate.

Boil some water in a pot and place a sieve in it with a bowl in the sieve, kind of like Russian dolls, but the water will make sure the heat isn't too harsh to burn the chocolate. Believe me, you don't want to burn the chocolate. Put the pot of water on medium heat and chuck a handful of chocolate chips or chunks into the bowl like this:

It will start melting gradually, don't rush this process and keep stirring. Once your handful of chocolate is completely melted, chuck in the rest of the chocolate and again, keep stirring until it is all melted.

Okay so now you can quickly dunk each piece of coconut filling into the chocolate, make sure it's coated and you can use a fork and a little spoon when doing this and once ready, place it aside on baking parchment to set. Now repeat until all your coconut filling is covered. If you need more chocolate, just melt some more.

How pretty they look is up to you and your skills but I don't mind them not looking too perfect, it's the taste that matter most plus they look a bit more rustic like this :D

And once they set, store them in an airtight container lined with baking parchment and also use some baking parchment between two layers if you decide to stack them on top of each other like I did.

And now just grab one of them if you haven't already and bite off a piece and listen to the chocolate snap..

Yep, it's gooooooooood :D

It really is a piss easy recipe and the product you get in the end is WELL worth it. I've been munching on these and they satisfy my chocolate bar cravings. The only thing is that you obviously make a batch each time, so make them last or share! :D

I hope you enjoyed this. Let me know if you try it yourself and tell me how they came out, I would love to hear.

Take care!!

Tuba

 

X x X