So good! Don’t tell your guests that it’s vegan, and they’ll never guess…

Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake

Makes a 20cm dia cake – Serves 8

Cake

1. 1¹/₂ cups plain flour
2. 1 cup brown sugar
3. ¹/₄ cup cocoa
4. 1 teaspoon baking soda
5. ¹/₂ teaspoon salt
6. ¹/₃ cup vegetable oil
7. 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
8. 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
9. 1 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C, and line with paper or grease a 20cm round cake tin.
2. Sift A-E together into a bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients, mix with a blender until smooth.
4. Pour into cake tin, bake for 45 minutes, or until cake skewer comes out clean.
5. Remove from oven, allow to cool, remove carefully from the pan for further cooling.

Mousse

1. 1 block (200-250g) dairy-free dark chocolate, melted.
   (Many dark chocolate brands use milk solids, check the ingredients)
   (An easy method to melt chocolate; break it into squares and microwave for 20 seconds at a time, stirring well each time, until all melted)
2. 1 packet (250-350g) of silken tofu
3. 2 tbsp milk (coconut, almond, rice etc)
4. 3 tbsp icing sugar
5. 1 tsp vanilla essence
6. Generous pinch of salt

1. Put all ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Blend at high speed for several minutes. The mousse should be completely smooth.

Assembly

1. Half a jar of strawberry jam

1. Turn the cake out of the pan.
2. Using a long bread knife, cut the cake in half horizontally. Put the lower half on a plate, and the upper half aside.
   (The cake will be fragile, so take care to prevent it from cracking)
3. If your cake tin is the spring-form kind, place the ring over the cake.
4. With a spatula, spread the mousse over the lower half of the cake.
5. Place the upper half of the cake over the top.
6. Melt the jam in the microwave (about a minutes) until molten.
   (Warning: Hot jam is hot.)
7. Spread/pour the jam over the top of the cake.
8. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

Serve on its own or with ice cream/sorbet.
If vegan: Do your best to keep everyone else away from your precious cake. Precious…