Chocolate Mint Cake

Chocolate mint cake

I made this chocolate mint cake at the weekend and it was a massive hit. The whole cake disappeared in a day!

It has a subtle peppermint taste, so you should definitely make the optional chocolate mint frosting which ups the mintiness a notch. A cake is a cake but it is the frosting that makes this one special.

It is completely dairy-free (no eggs, milk or butter) so it’s great for vegans, vegetarians, lactose-intolerant or kosher/parev diets.

It’s also designed to be mixed in a single bowl so it’s a perfect recipe to make with children. And don’t forget to lick the mixing bowl and the spoon afterwards, the mixture is utterly delicious!

Cake ingredients

• 1½ cups plain flour
• 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 cup granulated or caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon peppermint essence or extract (UK: something like Dr.Oetker peppermint extract works fine.)
• 5 tablespoons of plain vegetable oil
• 1 cup of water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and grease/line a 20cm/8″ baking tin.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt) in a large bowl.
3. Add the vinegar, peppermint essence, vegetable oil and water into the bowl one after another.
4. Mix everything together thoroughly until you’ve got a smooth, chocolatey mixture.
5. Pour it into your baking tin and cook in the centre of the oven for about 35 minutes. It’s done when the tip of a knife comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.
6. If you’re going to add the chocolate mint frosting, leave the cake in the baking tin to cool. Then you can add the topping while it’s still in there – it’s much less messy that way!

The Chocolate Mint Frosting

Making the frosting is a one pan affair, involving only some stirring and hand-whisking. It is important to spread the frosting mix while it’s still warm. It’ll coat the cake properly and level itself into an impressively smooth and even topping. Then, importantly, put the iced cake into the fridge for an hour for the icing to set firm.

Ingredients

• 100g (1 cup) of non-dairy chocolate chips or smashed-up chocolate
• ¼ cup soya cream. You can use almond milk instead, but you might need to increase the amount of icing sugar
• 50g vegan hard margarine like Tomor  (could substitute coconut oil or vegetable oil)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence or extract
• ½ teaspoon peppermint essence or extract
• 1 cup icing sugar, but use more if needed

Method

1. Combine everything except the icing sugar into a medium-sized saucepan. Heat it up slowly to melt the chocolate and margarine, and mix it all together.
2. Once the chocolate and margarine have melted, you’ll have a smooth, fairly liquid mixture. Remove the pan from the heat and then sift in the icing sugar, whisking while you do it. Don’t just dump in all the icing sugar at one go (like I did the first time) or it’ll go lumpy. Keep whisking until the mix is thick and glossy.
3. Pour it straight over the cake, spreading it with a knife if you need to.
4. Now for the hard part – *resist eating the cake*. Put it in the fridge for an hour for the topping to set firm.

Chocolate mint cake

Thanks are due:

The cake is based on this American recipe and the mint frosting is a veganised version of this recipe. Thanks are due to both.

 

Like this? Try these too:

Ginger Chocolate Brownies

Chocolate Hazelnut Flapjacks

Banana And Chocolate Chip Loaf

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