Vegan Chocolate Halloween Cake
Delicious chocolate cake layered with fudgy dark chocolate ganache and the whole thing topped with “bloody” buttercream roses.
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 300 g all purpose flour
- 60 g cocoa powder, sifted
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 300 g water, warm
- 230 g white granulated sugar, make sure it’s vegan
- 150 g neutral oil, (grapeseed, canola, vegetable...)
- 4 tsp white vinegar , or apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp instant coffee granules , optional
Chocolate Ganache
- 260 g dairy free dark chocolate bar or wafers, chopped
- 260 g full fat coconut milk, from a can
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 10 g refined or unrefined coconut oil, melted
Strawberry “Blood”
- 90 g cut strawberries , fresh or frozen
- 2-3 blackberries , fresh or frozen
- 1 tsp water, plus more to adjust the consistency after
- 40 g brown sugar
- cocoa powder, as needed
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F and grease and flour 2 6-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the water, sugar, oil, vinegar, vanilla and coffee.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until smooth.
- Divide evenly between the two pans and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let them cool almost completely before removing them from the pans because they’ll be quite fragile. Then let them cool on a wire rack.
Chocolate Ganache
- Chop up the chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl.
- In a saucepan, combine the coconut milk and salt and heat until just simmering.
- Pour it over the chocolate and let sit for a few minutes to let the chocolate soften.
- With a spatula, stir starting from the center until you get a smooth glossy ganache. Then stir in the coconut oil.
- Cover with cling wrap directly on the surface and place in the fridge to cool completely. When ready to use, heat it in the microwave in 10-15 second bursts stirring every time until it reaches a spreadable consistency.
Strawberry “Blood”
- In a saucepan, heat the strawberries, blackberries, water and brown sugar until just boiling.
- Reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring often and mashing the fruit with your spatula to break them down.
- Once thickened, pass the jam through a sieve twice and adjust the consistency by adding water and add cocoa powder to deepen the colour as needed.
- Store covered in the fridge to cool until you’re ready for assembly.
Notes
- *Disclaimer: I have a tiny not-so-great oven, so your bake time may vary from mine.
- I strongly suggest making recipes by weight, if you make them by cups I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the same results.
- The coffee granules in the cake are optional, they just help intensify the chocolate flavour.