This vegan chocolate almond cake is simple to make with a rich texture and flavour and a smooth chocolate icing which sets to the consistency of soft fudge.
You’d expect to find almonds in a chocolate almond cake, and this recipe features both ground and flaked almonds, along with a dash of almond extract. Something you might not expect to find is potatoes, but boiled, pureed potato is what gives this cake its particularly moist, soft, semi-dense texture.
As well as holding moisture, potatoes have a propensity to bind other ingredients together in baking. If you can set aside thoughts of salt and pepper and all the other things we tend to add to potatoes, their natural flavour is actually mild and creamy, and perfectly suited to cakes.
I used Dutch processed cocoa in the pictured cake, which has an especially good flavour. I’ve made this recipe with ordinary cocoa powder, too, and simply omitted the vinegar because ordinary cocoa powder is mildly acidic and will react with bicarbonate of soda on its own.
vegan chocolate almond cake…
ingredients
- 60 g peeled white potato
- 125 g self-raising white/unbleached flour
- 125 g ground almonds
- 50 g Dutch processed cocoa (see note above if using ordinary cocoa powder)
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150 g light brown (or other) sugar
- 150 ml oat (or other non-dairy) milk
- 100 g soft vegan margarine
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
for the chocolate fudge icing
- 140 g dark non-dairy chocolate
- 40 g golden syrup
- 20 ml water
- a few flaked almonds to decorate
method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F. Lightly oil and line the base of an 8″ round or similar-sized cake tin.
- Chop the potato into chunks no larger than 1″ across and boil in water until they are tender. Drain and set aside.
- Sieve the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Add the ground almonds and sugar and whisk with a hand whisk to ensure everything is evenly distributed.
- Measure the oat milk, margarine, almond extract and vinegar into the jug of a blender or other suitable processor. Add the potato and blend until you have a smooth creamy mixture.
- Pour the creamy potato mixture into the dried ingredients, stirring gently as you go. Continue stirring until everything is combined, but don’t over stir.
- Transfer the mixture to the tin, level the top a little and bake for around thirty-five minutes until it has risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- One the cake is cool, remove it from the tin.
- To make the icing, first chop the chocolate up (aim for pieces no larger than 1cm across, so that they will melt easily).
- Heat the syrup and water in a bowl or jug in the microwave until they are bubbling thoroughly.
- Tip in the chopped chocolate straight away and stir with a metal spoon until the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth glossy mixture.
- Transfer this to the top of the cake and spread it gently to the edges with the back of the spoon.
- Decorate with a few flaked almonds. The pictured cake was cut while the icing was soft – it will set like soft fudge.
If you would like to receive e-mail alerts when new recipes are published, please see my contact page.
