Big Birthday Cake
Summary
| Yield | |
|---|---|
| Prep time | 1 hour |
Description
Serves 8-12 generous slices
50-60 minutes total preparation and cooking time
Makes one beast of a double cake! We’ve added three options too...
Equipment
- Scales
- Measuring spoons
- Sieve
- Large mixing bowl and wooden spoon/whisk
- Greaseproof paper or baking parchment
- Pencil and scissors
- 2 x 20cm/8 inch square cake tins
- Pastry brush (if not using low-cal spray to grease tins)
- Measuring jug
- Toothpick or thin wooden kebab stick to test cake
Ingredients
| 250 | g | vegan margarine such as pure/vitalite/suma brands |
| 150 | g | caster sugar |
| 500 | g | self-raising flour |
| 6 | t | baking powder (yes, really!) |
| 1 | pn | salt |
| 500 | ml | plain soya yoghurt eg alpro yofu |
| 2 | T | soya milk plus a little more if necessary |
| 2 | tsp | vanilla extract |
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 (NB. Reduce by 5-10 degrees if using a fan-assisted oven).
2. In a saucepan, warm the margarine/oil and sugar until both have melted. Leave to cool.
3. Grease two deep 20cm/8 inch loose bottomed cake tins and line the bases with greaseproof paper.
4. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl and add the salt.
5. Pour the margarine and sugar mixture, yoghurt, soya milk and vanilla extract to the flour mix.
6. Mix well until you get a soft dropping. The batter will look slightly curdled – this is just the cake’s raising agents doing their work!
7. Add a little more soya milk if necessary – about 1-2 tbsp.
8. Spoon cake mix equally into the tins and bake for 30-40 minutes until risen and golden.
9. If using an ordinary oven make sure you space the cake tins in oven so bottom cake is overshadowed as little as possible by top cake. After 25 minutes you may need to swap them over to ensure each cake gets cooked evenly. You shouldn’t need to swap the tins if you are using a fan-assisted oven.
10. When the cooking time is up, the centre of the cakes should feel springy. Test with a cocktail stick – it should come out cleanly if cooked inside. If not, cook for another 5-10 minutes.
11. Leave cakes to cool completely before placing on a cooling rack.
12. Carefully remove the greaseproof paper from the bottom.
13. Spread filling of your choice on the two inside halves of the cake.
14. Decorate cake according to choice – or just dust with a little icing sugar.
Filling options
Fruity and Creamy
- 1 jar of your favourite fruit jam – eg strawberry or raspberry
- 1 tub vanilla soya dessert (from large supermarkets or health stores)
- Icing sugar to dust
- Spread the jam on both halves of the cake. Spread the soya dessert in the middle,
- making sure everything is evenly distributed.
- Sieve a little icing sugar over the cake to decorate
Lemon
- 2 tbsp lemon juice and zest of lemon added to cake mix.
- 85g/3oz vegan margarine
- 200g/7oz icing sugar
- Zest of a lemon
- 2 tbsp lemon juice.
- Make lemon icing by creaming thoroughly.
- Spread the icing on the bottom half of the cake and place the other half on top
Chocolate Chip
- Add 110g/4oz vegan chocolate chips to the cake mix.
- Make icing as above, but omit lemon zest and juice.
- Replace with 3 tbsp sieved cocoa powder and 2-3 tbsp soya milk.
- Spread the icing on the bottom half of the cake and place the other half on top