Baking for a friend: Vegan & Gluten-free Chocolate Orange & Cinnamon Cake

A tantalising smell of chocolate, orange and cinnamon wafts from the oven and permeates the whole house. The timer rings and I check the cake with a toothpick, but my lackadaisical oven hasn’t worked its magic yet.

“At least 5 more minutes…” I think.

I hear the key turning in the door. P’s back from work, and he’s probably hungry…

“This smells good…what’s baking?” he asks, rushing into the kitchen.

“I’m making a cake for tomorrow, R.’s coming over for lunch”.

“Oh.” he sounds deflated. “So this is a vegan cake…but it smells good!”

“Well, let’s hope it tastes good too!” I say.

One hour later.

I cut a slice of cake; it’s got a soft, slightly dense texture.

Good.

I take a tentative morsel, keeping my fingers crossed.

I shouldn’t have worried.

The cake tastes wonderful, and the combination of orange, chocolate and cinnamon is delicious.

“Please try this cake, and tell me what you think of it.” I ask P.

He looks dubious, but cuts himself a very thin slice.

His first hesitant bite turns into enthusiastic ones and he cuts himself a second, thicker slice.

“This is lovely, I can’t believe it’s vegan!” he says. “It would be even yummier with a chocolate sauce drizzled over, what do you think?”

“I think you’re right.”

Tips & Notes

• I researched different substitutes for eggs, and found a good guide here; I’m not vegan, and I do eat eggs (organic eggs from local farms, where hens are free to roam – like the chickens my grandmother kept!). However, vegan cakes are dairy free  and definitely healthier than cakes made with butter, eggs and milk. Some recipes need butter or eggs to really work (shortbread, for example), but I’m happy to experiment with vegan recipes too.
• I used a small plum-cake baking tin, however you could also bake this cake in a  20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 inches) tin, and then cut it into cubes. If you use a round tin, I suggest using a springform one because it’ll be much easier to lift the cake.
• If you don’t want to serve the cake with chocolate sauce, you can just dust it lightly with icing sugar.
• This cake would be great as a base for a birthday cake, however if you want to assemble it in layers I suggest you make two cakes and bake them separately (rather than make a bigger cake and slice it in half) because this cake is quite fragile and might break.
• If you cannot find cream of tartar, you can substitute it with the same amount of baking powder.
• If you don’t have potato flour, use cornflour (cornstarch) instead; if you don’t need the cake to be gluten free, you can use plain flour, although brown rice flour gives it a nice softness.

Chocolate Orange Cake, vegan & gluten-free

150 gr organic natural (unflavoured) soy yoghurt (5.3 oz.)

45 gr sunflower oil (4 tablespoons, 1.6 oz.)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

170 gr caster sugar (6 oz.)

grated zest of 1 small orange

100 ml freshly squeezed orange juice (slightly less than 7 tablespoons)

160 gr brown rice flour (5.6 oz.)

1 tablespoon potato flour, or cornflour

35 gr unsweetened cocoa (1.2 oz.)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pinch of salt

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

for the chocolate sauce:

50 gr dark chocolate, 70% cocoa (1.8 oz.)

4-5 tablespoons soy cream

• Preheat the oven (static) to 180° (355° F)
• In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients with a whisk  – potato flour, brown rice flour, salt, cinnamon. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, pour the soy yoghurt, vanilla extract and sunflower oil. Beat for about 1 minute with a whisk, until the mixture has a consistency similar to mayonnaise.
• Add the sugar and beat until combined.
• Add the orange zest and orange juice, and stir until combined; the batter will be quite liquid.
• Add the dry ingredients (flours, cocoa, salt and cinnamon) in three times, and  stir them in with a whisk until fully incorporated.
• Pour in the cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda and  quickly stir until mixed.
• Pour the cake batter onto a 23 x 9 cm (9 x 3.5 in) plum-cake baking tin lined with parchment paper. Make sure that the parchment paper overhangs, so it’ll be easier to lift the cake.
• Depending on your oven, bake for about 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• Lift the cake from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool; when the cake has cooled down but it’s still slightly warm (after about 20 minutes), cover it with some tin foil and let cool completely.
• Cut into slices and serve with a chocolate sauce.To make the chocolate sauce: melt the chocolate, either in the microwave or using a bain marie. When the chocolate is melted, stir in the soy cream.
• To store, wrap with tin foil and keep in a tin box or airtight container for 3 days.

For a printable recipe, click here

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Tagged as: baking, cake, chocolate, gluten-free, orange, vegan