Avocado Chocolate Cake!

I was intrigued when this cake inspiration popped up on my Facebook page.  An avocado chocolate cake?!  Beetroot yes, carrot yes, even courgette, but I'd never heard of avocado in a cake before!  I wanted to give it a go as I have several friends who are vegan and I always find vegan cakes struggle to rise due to the lack of eggs and, as a result, I find the texture very dense.  I try every vegan cake recipe I stumble across, searching for that rare treasure, a light, fluffy vegan cake.  This one was a stunner!  Absolutely delicious, you cannot taste even the hint of avocado, rich, decadent and light as air - I definitely recommend.

Full recipe here - https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chocolate-avocado-cake

Ingredients

• a little dairy-free sunflower spread, for greasing
• 1 large, ripe avocado
  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  
   (about 150g)
• 300g light muscovado sugar
• 350g gluten-free plain flour
• 50g good quality cocoa powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  
• 2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• 400ml unsweetened soya milk
• 150ml vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 160C or 140C fan.  Grease and line 2 x 20cm sandwich tins.  (Side note - you can now get 40 ready cut round cake liners of various sizes from Poundland!  I think £1 is a bargain for not having to fuss around cutting greaseproof paper up!)
2. Whizz the avocado and sugar in a food processor until smooth.  Add the rest of the cake ingredients (plus 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt) whizz again.
3. Divide equally between the tins and bake for 25 minutes (or until fully risen and a skewer comes out clean.)

Easy peasy simple pimple!

Now, I deviated from the recipe when it came to decoration.  As usual, I didn't have all the ingredients for the ganache and couldn't be bothered to go to the shops!  I used my favourite buttercream recipe.  I'm afaid I can't tell you the exact amount I used as I kept adding more until I had the right amount, but it was roughly these ratios...

• 1 cup vegan butter (I used Pure sunflower spread)
• 2 1/2 cups of icing sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• salt (to taste)

I always use salted butter in my non-vegan bakes, to offset the sweetness of the icing sugar.  I couldn't find salted vegan butter, so I added salt until it tasted right!

I didn't really have a plan in my head for decoration, I just made it up as I went along!

1. Put a little buttercream on your presentation plate to keep the cake still.  Set one cake on top of the buttercream and spread with a thicker layer of buttercream.  Top with the other cake.
2. Cover the whole cake in a thin layer of buttercream.  This is often called the 'crumb coat' as it sticks down all the crumbs and gives you a really smooth finish.  Chill the cake in the fridge (or the freezer if you're in a rush) until the crumb layer has firmed.  (This step is a little harder with vegan butter as it doesn't go as firm as dairy butter.  Maybe try the freezer to make it a little firmer!)
3. When the crumb coat is firm, remove the cake from the fridge.  Decorate with a thicker layer of buttercream (using a palette knife for a smoother finish).  Again, I reccommend chilling the cake before the next step.
4. There are several options for covering the cake with hundreds and thousands.  Some methods reccommend just pressing them against the cake but I found this very inefficient.  The most efficient method I found was to fill a tray with hundreds and thousands and roll the cake in them!  You want the cake to be really cold if you're trying this method.  Mine wasn't quite cold enough which is why it looks a little squashed!  Again, might be easier with dairy butter.
5. To make the chocolate decorations, I melted white vegan chocolate and milk vegan chocolate seperately and poured into piping bags,  It's very tricky to judge as you want the chocolate to cool down enough so it doesn't just run everywhere but you also want it viscous enough that you can actually pipe with it and that it doesn't block up the piping bag!  I piped the outlines first then squirted a load of chocoalte into the outline and used a skewer to spread it around.  I only made one at a time because they set quite quickly!  You want to let them set completely at room temperature, then put in the fridge to harden further.  Never put them in the fridge before they've set, you'll get white marks all over them and they'll look awful.
6. Arrange your chosen shapes in any way you want!  I did large at the back reducing in size to small at the front which I think looked quite effective!

My score: 4/5  Super easy to make but the vegan butter does make decorating a little more difficult.

Julia's Top Tips

• Be patient!  Let the cake cool and the chocolate cool as much as possible - they'll be much easier to work with!
• Experiment with decoration techniques - I originally piped rosettes over mine but decided it looked too 70s and spread it all out flat again!  Icing is very forgiving so don't be afraid to try different styles out before choosing your final finish.
• Always use salt in your icing - it balances the flavours and stops your teeth from aching!

Keeeeeeeeeeep baking!