A Vegan Recipe for Chocolate Cake Day with Num Noms

January 27th is Chocolate Cake Day and who doesn't love chocolate cake! Especially when it's a delicious vegan chocolate cake, perfect to celebrate the end of Veganuary.

Num Noms are celebrating Chocolate Cake Day by challenging us to create Num Noms inspired chocolate cakes with some Num Noms Series 4 flair! We were sent a Series 4 Sweets Sampler, which includes the cute little Hottie Chocolate. Scented with delicious chocolate fragrance, Hottie joins other Nums such as Confetti Crunch, Tia Tea-Time and Madelyn Macaron. Perfect inspiration for baking delicious treats at home.

Each colourful, scented Num is cute and quirky and bursting with personality. The Series 4 Sweets Sampler contains ten Nums including a surprise Mystery Num along with two Noms. The Glitter Lip Gloss Noms come in a variety of flavours such as Mint Swirl Gloss-Up and Lemon Drop Gloss-Up. They also come in individual blind pots, making collecting fun! Inside, there is a Nom lipgloss or nail polish and a sweet foodie flavoured Num. You can find limited special edition characters and there are 120 characters to collect.

Our chocolate cake recipe is made with 100% plant based ingredients and is rich, chocolatey and delicious. It has a rich chocolatey frosting and filling and is decorated with chopped nuts. The method is very simple, so that means it is great to get the kids involved with the baking. And because it is vegan, there is no danger when it comes to licking the bowl!

Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

10oz SR wholemeal flour

2oz cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

9oz caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

135ml rice bran oil

1 1/2 cups water

Frosting

2oz vegan marg

3 tblspns water

9oz icing sugar

2 tblspns cocoa powder

Method

Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into a mixing bowl.

Stir in sugar and vanilla extract.

Beat in oil and water.

Pour the batter into two prepared 7" cake tins and cook for 30 mins at 180 degrees centigrade until springy to the touch.

Allow to cool completely before turning the cakes out.

Meanwhile put the marg and sugar in a pan and heat until the marg is fully melted.

Remove from heat and beat in sifted icing sugar and cocoa.

Use to fill and top the cake.

Decorate with chopped walnuts.

Enjoy a big slice of Vegan Chocolate Cake to celebrate Chocolate Cake Day on January 27th! Delicious!

Find Series 4 Num Noms at Amazon, Smyth's Toys and Claire's. The Sweets Sampler is £16.99 and the mystery packs are £3.99. Find out more at numnoms.mgae.com.

Eat Your Heart Out Chocolate Cake Recipe #evenbetterbaking

Chocolate cake is one of life's little pleasures.  There is not many things to rival a piece of rich, moist, chocolate cake topped with an indulgent frosting.  So when Dr.Oetker challenged me to try a new chocolatey bake, I decided to make a heart shaped chocolate cake, perfect to share with my lovely husband (and the kiddies too of course!)  We missed our Valentine's celebrations this year as Freddy was very poorly, so by making a gloriously romantic chocolate heart cake, Ian and I will get to have a belated celebration.  Chocolate always tastes better if it's shared with the one you love!

The recipe I chose, Eat Your Heart Out Chocolate Cake, is from the Dr.Oetker's website, where you can find lots of baking inspiration for chocolate cakes and bakes.

I received a parcel of Dr.Oetker's delicious cooking chocolate and edible decorations to use in my bake.  The range makes cooking with chocolate so easy, and with a variety of different products from white chocolate to 90% extra dark chocolate, there is something for all tastes.  The chocolate melts so well whether you chose to use a microwave or to melt it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Eat Your Heart Out Chocolate Cake Recipe

Cake Ingredients

50g Dr.Oetker Fine Cooks' 72% Extra Dark Chocolate

115g butter

225g dark brown sugar

2 eggs

150ml set yogurt

200g SR flour

25g Dr.Oetker cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients

85g Dr.Oetker Fine Cooks' 72% Extra Dark Chocolate

115g butter

175g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Decorations

Dr.Oetker milk and white Chocolate Hearts

Dr.Oetker Silver Pearls

a dusting of cocoa powder

Method

Preheat oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees C

Melt the Fine Cooks' Chocolate (I used the microwave on a medium setting but you could melt it in a bowl over simmering water).

Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar.

Mix eggs and yogurt together and add to mixture along with other ingredients including melted chocolate.

Beat for 2 minutes.

Place into a 10 inch heart shaped prepared tin (I used a silicone mould with Cake Release).

Cook for 40 - 45 minutes until cake is risen and springs back to touch.

Leave to cool for 15 minutes then turn onto cake rack.

To make frosting melt the chocolate.

Beat together the icing sugar and butter.

Add vanilla extract and melted chocolate and beat until smooth.

Spread over cake and around edges.

Dust lightly with sieved cocoa powder.

Decorate using Dr.Oetker's milk and white Chocolate Hearts and Silver Pearls.

Throughout March, Dr.Oetker wants to celebrate all things chocolatey and is running a competition on Twitter to encourage everyone to have a go at baking their own yummy chocolate cakes and bakes.

To enter, simply Tweet @DrOetkerbakes a photo of a chocolate bake you've made and tell them who you will be sharing it with using the hashtag #evenbetterbaking. You could win a deluxe hamper of Dr.Oetker chocolate products!  

You could try the Eat Your Heart Out Chocolate recipe that I made or one of the other delicious chocolate recipes at www.oetker.co.uk.

Celebrating Father's Day with Glenfiddich Whiskey #cbias

I am a member of Collective Bias Social Fabric Community. This content has been compensated as part of the social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

My husband Ian is a fabulous, hands on father to our five children who completely adore him, and he fully deserves to be treated to the finer things in life.  When Father's Day comes around it provides an extra excuse to do just that!  Celebrating having a great man in my children's life is something I do everyday, but this one day a year gives us a licence to go that step further and go to town with good food and gifts as we come together as a family to let Ian know just how special he is to us and how lucky we all are to have him.

One of Ian's favourite tipples is Single Malt ScotchWhiskey - possibly due to the fact that Scottish blood runs through his McDonald veins!  Taking part in a shop for Collective Bias to purchase a bottle of Glenfiddich 12 Year Old Whisky as a Father's Day gift, put a big smile on the face of my husband and gave me an opportunity to really spoil him.  

Take a look at our photos from our shopping trip to Morrison's in my Google + album where we looked at Father's Day Gift ideas and bought our Glenfiddich which was on special offer at just £20 for a 70 cl botttle!

Buying the Glenfiddich was just the start of Ian's treats, as I wanted to use the whiskey, not just as a smooth, warming drunk, but also as an ingredient in a recipe for an amazingly delicious sounding Chocolate and Glenfiddich Whiskey Layer Cake.  I found a recipe at The Little Loaf and tweaked it everso slightly.  The resulting cake is rich, indulgent, dark, moist and absolutely divine. The Glenfiddich Whiskey adds a grown-up and rather masculine twist to the chocolate cake which will make it a hit for any dad on Father's Day.  So buying a bottle of Glenfiddich is a great gift idea.  What's more, dad gets to finish what's left of the bottle at the end of the baking session. A gift that just goes on giving!

Chocolate and Glenfiddich Whiskey Layer Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake

340g plain flour
525g golden caster sugar
128g cocoa powder
2 ¼ tsp baking powder
2 ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 large free range eggs
375ml milk
188ml rice bran oil
3 tsp vanilla extract
375ml boiling water

For the whiskey syrup

100ml water
100g caster sugar
50ml Glenfiddich whiskey

For the buttercream

150g softened butter
350g icing sugar
4 tbsp condensed milk
2 tbsp Glenfiddich whiskey

For the ganache

250g dark chocolate
250ml double cream
100g light brown muscovado sugar

Method:

For the cake

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Prepare three 20cm cake tins. I use Cake Release.
• Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the bowl. Add sugar.
• In a separate bowl, beat the eggs then add the milk and rice bran oil. Pour into the dry mixture and whisk for two to three minutes until well combined.
• Whisk the boiling water to your mixture a little at a time until combined. The batter will be extremely liquid.

• Pour into your prepared cake tins and bake in the centre of the oven for 25 – 35 minutes. Remove from oven when cooked through.

For the whiskey syrup

• Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. 
• Simmer for a couple of minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Add the whiskey and simmer for one minute more then remove from the heat.
• Drizzle the syrup over the top of each cake.

For the buttercream

• Beat the butter until pale and fluffy. 
• Sift in the icing sugar and whisk to combine, then add the condensed milk. 
• Continue to beat, slowly adding the whiskey.

For the ganache

• Place the chopped chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl.  
• Heat the cream and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for one minute. 
• Remove from the heat and allow to stand for one minute then pour over the chocolate and stir until smooth and glossy. Allow to cool to a spreadable consistency.

To assemble the cake

• Smear ganache on top of one of the cake rounds.  Spread buttercream onto another round and sandwich together.
• Repeat by smearing ganache on top of the cake and spreading buttercream onto the third round and placing on top.
• Use the rest of the ganache to coat the top and sides of the cake and smooth over.

I really enjoyed making this cake with help from Kizzy who loves baking. The aromas that emanated from the kitchen were amazing.  Seeing the end result made us know that all our hard work was well worth the effort.  When Ian saw the cake he was very keen to sample it along with a wee dram of Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whiskey!  He said the cake was amazing.

We may have started our Father's Day celebrations a bit early this year, but I wanted to share this cake recipe with you in case you want to treat the man in your life.