Dairy free chocolate cake

The chocolate cake was something of an obsession for my mum at one stage. She was always trying to perfect it, continually moaning about how she could never get it moist enough. I remember standing in the kitchen one summer’s morning as my mother gleefully pulled out yet another concoction – I think this one had yoghurt in it. She seemed rather excited about it, best cake she’d made she concluded. At the time I was 6 (or so) so I was more concerned with the beckoning call of the cicadas to go out and play, so long as a slice was awaiting my return.
Now I can understand her toils and frustrations. Just a google search of chocolate cake returns untold results and none give any guarantee or promise of a satisfying result. And to be honest many of the recipes I have exhausted in the past year or so have been a bit lack lustre. But then I discovered this cake as a Chelsea bake off winner. Time and time again it has made fantastic moist chocolate cakes, although I definitely had to halve the recipe!
Recently my son has been diagnosed as being dairy intolerant. Luckily I already had this recipe up my sleeve which due to being already butter free is an easy conversion to a dairy free recipe. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
Ingredients for cake (makes 2 cakes)
1 cup caster sugar
1 ½ cups self-raising flour
1tsp baking soda
¼ cup cocoa
2 eggs, separated
1 cup oat milk
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
¾ cups cooking oil
1 egg
Method
1. Pre-heat oven on bake to 180°C
2. Grease two tins with non-stick spray.
3. Combine all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
4. In a separate bowl mix the rest of the wet ingredients, reserve the egg whites.
5. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, set aside.
6. Beat the egg whites until stiff and then gradually fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites. Pour into the two pre-prepared tins and place into oven.
7. Bake for 25-30minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Ingredients for the caramel
100g of caster sugar
100ml of water
1/2 -3/4 cup oat milk
Method
1. Bring the sugar and water to the boil in a small saucepan. Continue to boil without stirring or touching until the mixture takes on a golden caramel colour.
2. As soon as the colour change begins remove from heat and whisk in oat milk gradually to desired consistency
Ingredients for the ganache
190g of dark dairy free chocolate (I used Whittaker’s dark)
½ – 1 cup oat milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp icing sugar
Method
1. Melt the chocolate in either the microwave or on a double boiler.
2. Once the chocolate is melted mix in the oat milk, vanilla and icing sugar.
To assemble
Turn both of the cakes out from their tins. Pour caramel over the bottom cake and then ice with half of the ganache. Place top cake on top and repeat, sprinkle with chopped roasted hazelnuts and drizzle with caramel.