WSC Vegan chocolate cake and Peppa Pig

A great basic vegan chocolate cake recipe from my university food co-op days that now serves us well as Dolly's birthday cake. Peppa Pig would approve.

Television show: Peppa Pig, children’s cartoon, UK, 2004 - current

What it Means to Me:  
Peppa Pig is a short cartoon about a family of pigs.  It is a favourite TV shows of Sylvia (aged 4). It is one I am quite happy for her to watch. The characters are quite believable, the drawing is charmingly naïve and the humour appeals to both children and adults. I like how positive each story is. I also find it interesting that we never see them eat meat. Even when Kev Kangaroo visits and fires up the barbie, he cooks corn on the cob. I guess if they ate meat, they would be eating the animals that are their friends.

We have a few DVDs that have been watched frequently and when it comes on the telly, Sylvia likes me to sit next to her and watch.

Making the cake.  Note postcard from my parents in Russia in the top left photo. 
They returned from their trip over 2 months ago.

Food Moment:
It was hard to pick one food moment. Daddy Pig flipping a pancake onto the ceiling, George Pig calling spaghetti 'peeghetti', ice cream served by Daddy Pig on Miss Rabbit's day off, the blackberry and apple crumble Grandma Pig makes after Mummy Pig gets stuck in the brambles. I could go on and on. I chose chocolate cake.

In Peppa Pig, they always make a chocolate cake for a birthday or celebration.  I love the way that the icing is so easily spread over the cake, and when it gets smeared over their mouths and they lick it off in one deft movement (especially when eager to play with Polly Parrot).  If only life was as easy as it seems in cartoon land.

My original recipe notes.  I have noted half quantities in the right hand column.

Recipe notes:
I chose a simple chocolate cake recipe that I was given many years ago when I was a volunteer at the university food co-op.  This cake was a regular feature on the menu.  In my recipe notebook I have listed it as Food Co-Op Moist Chocolate Cake.  Needless to say I loved it.  At the time, the idea of a vegan cake was bizarre.  I loved it.

It is a recipe that I see online quite regularly.  I have seen it called Wacky Cake or Magic Cake because it is an easy egg free dairy free cake that uses regular kitchen ingredients and (some recipes say) can be mixed and baked in the same cake tin.

The cake is good enough to eat uniced.

Random Notes:
I picked up Sylvia from child care and told her we would be having chocolate cake tonight.  She immediately explained that it was Dolly's birthday cake.  It is always Dolly's birthday.  She keeps getting older and older despite spending today in a shoebox cradle with a scarf for a mattress and handkerchiefs for blankets.

I had planned to make the cake a bit fancy for  We Should Cocoa, a blog event founded by Choclette (and Chele of The Chocolate Teapot who sadly has retired from blogging).  The event is celebrating it's 3rd year and the theme is chocolate showstopper cake.

Now I don't really do showstopper cakes.  I do have a cake stand for a small cake.  I was out of icing sugar but I had leftover buttercream from Oreos so I just mixed in some melted chocolate.  And I have more sprinkles than I care to admit.  I wasn't quite sure how to decorate the cake.  Fortunately I have Sylvia, the Sprinkles Queen.  She just put a bit of every sprinkles into the bowl and we covered the icing with them.  I also sandwiched the cake together with more chocolate buttercream and some raspberry and rhubarb jam.  Sort of like a chocolate vegan Victoria Sponge Cake.

But I iced the cake for Choclette and Dolly.  Unfortunately my best photo of the cake included Sylvia musing over a broken match in the background.  I don't usually let her play with matches.  I just had the boxes out to light a sparkler.

The mention of Victoria Sponge might explain why E loved the cake.  It wasn't too rich for him and it was slathered in buttercream.  Sylvia was also delighted.  She knows that food is for play as well as eating.

After dinner I cleared the table and took a photo photos before cutting us a piece of cake.  Sylvia helped me with food props.  We made a deal that she would help keep the background from crashing onto the cake and she could take some photos after me.  The background still came crashing down.

Once photos were over, I lit a sparkler and Sylvia made us all stand back.  Then she insisted on cutting (butchering) the cake with a plastic knife.  It is amazing what you can get away with when you are cute enough to warm that it is unhealthy for witches to eat children and believe that warriors are people who worry a lot. Sylvia went to bed a wee bit late but we had fun.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: Alphabakes: Creamy pasties with peas or pumpkin
Two years ago: Baked beans - that recipe seems very familiar
Three years ago: Isabella's Cafe - lighthouse gourmet
Four years ago: Superhero Cake – Kapow!
Five years ago: In Search of the Green Smoothie

Vegan chocolate cake

1 and 1/3 cup flour (I used half white, half wholemeal)
1 cup sugar (I used half coconut sugar, half raw sugar)
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla (I used wattleseed)
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil (I used rice bran oil)
1 tsp vinegar

Preheat oven to 180 C.  Grease and line a cake tin.  I used a 6 inch cake tin but if I didn't plan to do it as a layer cake I would probably use a 20cm round tin.  (I halved the original recipe which suggested using a 13 x 9 inch lamington tin.)  Mix dry ingredients and then add wet ingredients.   Bake for 30 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Ice if desired but it is great without icing.

On the Stereo:
Magazine... (where the power is)

This post is part of Vegan Month of Food September 2013.  This year for Vegan MoFo I am cooking recipes inspired by some favourite tv shows - and veering off topic occasionally.  Go to my Vegan MoFo list for more of my Vegan MoFo posts.