Easy Peasy ‘Vegan Chocolate Cake’ without Margarine

Hello Folks! Today I am going to give you a very simple and delicious Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe without using Margarine.

Now, anyone who hasn’t heard the word till now, ‘Vegan’ is NOT and ingredient that is used in the cake. :) For me, it is a way of life. But, generally, it is a food-preference. A ‘Vegan’ is a person who does not have ANY product that comes directly or indirectly from Animals in their food. So, that means no meat, no fish, no eggs, no diary and no honey.

I may someday write an article about Veganism. But, for now, this is a recipe for ‘Vegan Chocolate Cake’.

Now, any veteran vegan baker knows about Margarine. But, for amateurs out there, Margarine is, simply put, a substitute for butter made of hydrogenated or refined oils. It was created to substitute for butter in France by Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès. Now, I have two reasons for not using Margarine:

1. It is not available in my city.
2. I heard it is not very good for health (comparatively).

I would definitely like to try it someday as I heard that it makes a GREAT difference to baking. But, for now I am very satisfied with this. So, shall we get to the recipe now?

Using Canola Oil for Vegan Chocolate Cake

Now, as I said, I use Canola Oil instead of Margarine and it works very well for me. I tried using Coconut Oil for one of my Vanilla Cupcake Recipes and I didn’t really find the taste very appealing maybe because of its strong flavour. I find Canola Oil to be the best substitute as it doesn’t really have its own flavour that overwhelms the taste of the cake. Also as I am not a huge fan of processed Oils, so, I like using Canola Oil for Vegan Chocolate Cake right now.

However, I read in many recipes that using any other vegetable oil instead of Canola Oil also gives quite good results. So, if you anyone tried some other oil, please let me know about your experience in the comments sections.

To grease or not to grease, that is the question!

I recently bought a heart-shaped Oven Pan for baking and I have followed the recipe to the T. Including the ‘coat the cake tin with oil and then powder it with cocoa powder’ step. However, I had a problem during this stage. As mine was a non-stick baking pan, the oil was not spread properly and in turn the cocoa powder was stuck to the pan in clumps. So, if you are using a non-stick pan like me, I think you can skip this part.

Don’t let your cake crack

Converting the 350 F, initially I kept the heat at around 150 C while pre-heating and also after putting the batter in. After about 5 minutes, I turned the heat down to about 120 C. But, my cake still cracked a little on the top. So, turning it down and keeping it a little longer is better if you don’t want to have the cracks. I admit that I was a little worried seeing the cracks as I had just too many experiences of eating over-baked cakes when I first started my baking endeavour. However, THIS was not over-baked and the taste was absolutely perfect.

Cool it Baby!

LET IT COOL DOWN! :D I know it is really really difficult to have a yummy chocolate cake in front of you and NOT pounce on it (with forks or spoons if you can find them or with hands!). And even I did just that (in the name of ‘testing’ it of course!) But, after having a few bites, I let it cool down and kept it in the refrigerator. If it was delicious right after taking it out of the oven, then it tastes like heaven after it cools down and sits for some time. Trust me on this if you want to have the BEST out of your ‘Vegan Chocolate Cake’, let it sit for some time and try to share it with friends and family! :)