Meera Sodha’s recipe for vegan chocolate cake with sprinkles

From theguardian.com

Back to baking school with this perennial favourite, with banana lending chocolate cake a lovely, moist consistency

Could chocolate cake be one of the world’s most welcome guests? A prolific traveller across the globe, and an integral part of office meetings, fundraisers, dinner parties, bat mitzvahs and no doubt weddings, too, the chocolate cake plays an outsized role in helping people celebrate. So I thought it was about time I wrote a recipe for a crowd-friendly (read: large), vegan and joyful one.

Chocolate cake with sprinkles

Hot water has long been an ingredient in chocolate cakes: the theory is that the chocolate tastes richer because the water blooms the cocoa, which, along with the (barely detectable) banana, makes for a lovely, moist and luscious cake. Decorate as you wish: in my book, that means the more sprinkles and baubles, the better.

Prep 5 min
Cook 1 hr + cooling time
Serves 12

For the cake
300ml whole oat milk
1½ tbsp apple cider vinegar
300g plain flour
280g caster sugar
80g cocoa powder
1 tsp fine sea salt
2½ tsp baking powder
1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g ripe banana (ie, 1 large one), peeled
150ml rapeseed oil
1 tbsp vanilla paste
Vegan sprinkles, to decorate

For the buttercream
100g 70% dark chocolate, suitable for vegans
120g unsalted vegan butter, softened
80g icing sugar
¼ tsp fine sea salt

Meera Sodha’s vegan chocolate cake with sprinkles. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. 

Food Styling Assistant: Kristine Jakobsson

Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Grease a 20cm x 30cm cake tin, then line it with greaseproof paper; cut a slit in each corner, so the paper fits into the tin more neatly. In a small bowl, mix the oat milk and cider vinegar, then put to one side.

Put the flour, caster sugar, cocoa, salt, baking powder and bicarb in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

In another large bowl, break the banana into chunks, then mash with a fork as well as you can, so it’s as smooth as possible. Add the oil, vanilla paste and oat milk/vinegar mixture, then beat with an electric mixer on a medium speed until combined. Turn up the speed to high and beat again until the banana has completely broken down and everything is well combined.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, then slowly stir in 275ml boiling water. On the lowest speed, carefully mix until it comes together into a wet batter. Spoon this into the lined tin, then tap it on a worktop a couple of times, to release any air bubbles. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean, then take out and leave to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the buttercream. Break the chocolate into small pieces and put them in a single layer in a glass or microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30-second bursts until nearly melted (you want the last of the chocolate to melt in the residual heat, rather than risk overheating it), then put to one side.

Rinse off the electric mixer. Put the butter in a large bowl and beat on a high speed for a minute or so, until fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar – it will look like rubble to begin with, but keep beating and the butter and sugar will come together into a cream. When the chocolate is just warm to the touch, stir it into the butter mix, add the salt and beat again until silky.

Lift the cake from its tin, using the paper lining to help you, and transfer to a plate (or simply leave it in the tin). Once it is completely cooled, spread the buttercream evenly all over the top and finish with a good amount of sprinkles.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/oct/14/vegan-chocolate-cake-with-sprinkles-recipe-meera-sodha