Vegan Vanilla Cake (for Cursed Apple Cake)
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- Vegan butter, for greasing
- 1½ tbsp white wine vinegar
- 700ml (1.2 pints) soya milk
- 280ml sunflower oil or other neutral-tasting oil
- 1 tsp liquid from can of chickpeas (aquafaba)
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
Dry Ingredients:
- ½ tsp salt
- 625g (22 oz) self-raising flour
- 450g (15.8 oz) caster or granulated sugar
- 2¼ tbsp baking powder
For the American buttercream:
- 550g (19.4 oz) vegan unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Salt, to taste
- 800g (28.2 oz) icing sugar
- Plant milk, to thin
- White food dye (add a little to get more of a pure white colour)
Method
- To make the cake: preheat the oven to 170°C/340°F/Gas 3. Grease 5 x 18-cm [7-in] cake tins with vegan butter and line the bases with baking paper
- In a large bowl, mix the vinegar with the soya milk until it curdles and thickens. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and the salt and stir together
- In a separate large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk until just combined. Pour immediately into the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until springy on top and a skewer or a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- When the cakes are baked, leave them to cool in their tins for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and turn out onto wire racks. Peel off the baking paper and leave to cool.
- Make sure the cakes are cool before assembling. Stack and crumb-coat the cakes using buttercream (see below).
- To make the buttercream: place the butter, salt and icing sugar in a stand mixer (or use a handheld electric whisk) fitted with a balloon whisk attachment and whisk on slow speed until the icing sugar is combined (you may want to cover the bowl with a tea towel to prevent the icing sugar flying everywhere!).
- Increase the speed to high and whisk until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula when necessary to ensure everything mixes properly. Add milk, 1 tbsp at a time, to achieve a spreadable consistency. Now add any flavourings.
- If not using straight away, cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate if not using for a few days; it should be fine for 2-3 days at room temperature. If refrigerating, let it come back to room temperature and whisk before using to make it easier to work with.
Vegan Life tip
Top tip: Crumb coating is the first coat of buttercream you apply all over your cake to stop the pesky crumbs sneaking into your second layer. To crumb-coat your cake layers, smooth buttercream all over the tops and sides of the cake using an offset spatula.
Recipe from Celebrate with Kim-Joy by Kim-Joy (Quadrille, £20) Photography ©Ellis Perrinder.
