INGREDIENTS
Cake
640g all-purpose flour
688g castor sugar
160 g cocoa powder
3 tsp bicarb soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 litre coconut or almond milk
600ml canola oil
6 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups frozen raspberries
1 cup crushed freeze dried raspberries
Vegan Chocolate Frosting
500g butter flavoured Crisco shortening
500g dairy free/vegan margarine
1.5kg powdered sugar
2 cups cocoa powder
4 tsp vanilla extract
4 tsp raspberry essence
INSTRUCTIONS
Frosting
Add shortening and margarine into a large mixing bowl, I used a stand mixer to make mine. Whip for 5 minutes until it goes pale in colour.
Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and raspberry essence and mix on low speed until all dry ingredients are all gone. Turn back up to high speed and whip for 10 minutes.
Please note: It’s a lot of powdered sugar to add all at once, so one cup a time will ensure you don’t make a huge mess! :0)
Cake
Preheat your oven to 180C (356F) or 160C (320F) for a fan forced oven. Line four 8” cake tins with baking paper. Set aside.
Preheat a fan-forced oven to 160C (320F) or 180C (356F) for a conventional oven. Spray an 8” cake tin with oil spray and line the bottom with baking paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarb soda, baking powder and salt. Mix on low speed until well combined.
Add the milk, oil and apple cider vinegar. Mix on low speed until no dry ingredients are showing. Scrape down the bowl, add frozen raspberries and fold in.
Fill four 8” cake tins with batter.
Bake for 45 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow the tins to cool for 2 min and then carefully flip the cake tins over on to a cooling rack to cool completely. I like to chill them overnight.
Using a large serrated knife, carefully trim the top off each layer of cake to make even and flat layers. Try to aim to get them all the same height. An easy way to do this is to find the lowest height of the cake, place a skewer or toothpick next to that point and mark it. As you go around each side of the cake cutting it, use the marked skewer to make sure each cut is at the same height. My cakes baked flat so I didn’t need to do this.
To prepare crumb coat, add a dab of frosting onto an 8” cake board or serving plate. Add first cake layer. Use a small offset to add a layer of frosting and smoothen out and layer the frosting on each layer before adding the next layer of cake. Add more frosting around the outside to fill the grooves between each layer. This should just be a neat thin layer of frosting which is aimed at trapping any cake crumbs so that random bits of cake crumbs don’t show up on the outside of the cake. Chill for 2 hours or overnight
Add a fresh layer of frosting using a small offset spatula. Use a cake scraper to smoothen out the frosting around the sides. Then smoothen out the top using the cake scraper. Chill.
To finish the cake, add freeze dried raspberries to the side of the cake. Start off heavy at the bottom and then add less as you go toward the top to get kind of an ombre effect.
Fit the end of a piping bag with a Wilton 1M piping tip and frost swirls on the top. Sprinkle with more freeze dried raspberries.
