Chocolate Cake with an Apricot Swist

This is a moist, indulgent cake with a light and tangy fruity kick that is bound to leave you wanting another generous slice. It is a little more time-consuming than your basic sandwich cake, but it’s definitely worth it. Nice to share with family and friends. Snuggle up and keep out of the wind and rain. Make a large pot of tea and spoil yourself.

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 200g plain flour
• 4 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 200 ml soya milk
• 100g soya butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. good quality vanilla extract

For the syrup:

• 4 Tbsp. apricot jam
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

For the icing:

• 70g dark chocolate
• 6 Tbsp. soya milk
• 3 Tbsp. soya butter
• 450g icing sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

Baking steps

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C and prepare 2 round cake tins



2. Sift together the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. As you want the ingredients to be well combined, it is a good idea to sift together several times until you get a nice even, light colour



3. Measure out the soya milk in a jug and mix in the lemon juice. It should curdle nicely. If not, add a little more lemon juice

4. Beat the two eggs together in a cup


5. In another bowl, cream the soy butter and sugar together until light and fluffy



6. Now is the time to put it all together. Think of the butter-sugar mix as your base. Mix well after each addition. First add a little of the egg, then some of the flour mix, then a little of the milk mix. Continue adding each of these in turn until you have one smooth batter.


7. Finally add the vanilla extract and stir well


8. Divide the mixture between the two cake pans
9. Bake for about twenty minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean


10. Leave to cool for five minutes in the cake tins and then turn out onto cooling racks
11. Use your cake tester to prick the cakes all over (in a nice gentle, methodical manner)
12. Leave to cool


Now it’s time to make the syrup



1. Simmer the jam and lemon juice together over a low heat until nicely thickened
2. Whilst still warm pour half over each cake base and spread to cover each surface

And finally: the icing

1. Gently melt the chocolate and soya butter in a steam bath (place a bowl on top of a pan of boiling water)
2. Remove from heat


3. In a bowl carefully mixed together the icing sugar, soya milk, salt and vanilla
4. Now slowly add the chocolate mix to the icing and beat together until nice and smooth


5. Sandwich the layers together with a layer of icing and then spread to the remaining icing to cover the surface of the cake


Eat up!