NEVER ENOUGH GARLIC

While vegan chocolate cakes are both relatively easy to find and make, their vanilla counterparts are a bit trickier, which is a shame because vanilla cakes are an excellent base for a lot of desserts and pretty awesome themselves. 

This vanilla chickpea cake puts a new spin on things by replacing most of the flour with chickpeas for a *slightly* healthier and richer cake that really brings out the vanilla. It can be eaten as is, lathered in icing, topped with fresh fruit and ice-cream, or whatever else you want. 

 

Ingredients:

• 1 can of chickpeas (400 g/14 oz)
• 185 g (6.2 fl. oz) cane sugar
• 180 ml (6 fl. oz) plant milk (we used almond)
• 80 ml (2.7 fl. oz) vegetable oil (we used sunflower)
• 65 g (2.3 oz) flour
• 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1.5 tsp. baking powder
• 0.5 tsp. baking soda
• Pinch of salt

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180^oC (350°F).
2.  Stir the apple cider vinegar into the plant milk and let sit for approx. 10 minutes to make buttermilk.
3.  Meanwhile, strain the liquid from the chickpeas and save for later (for instance, you can use it in this rich white chocolate pudding). Blend the chickpeas into a smooth cream in a food processor or with a hand blender. Use a couple of spoonfuls of plant-milk from the buttermilk mixture if too thick to blend on its own.
4.  In a large bowl, whisk together the blended chickpeas, sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and salt. Add the flour gradually and whisk until smooth.
5.  Pour in the buttermilk mixture into the rest of the batter and mix well. Add the baking soda and baking powder last.
6.  Fill a baking tin halfway with the batter. Note: if filled more than halfway, the cake might take too long baking in the centre and end up with burnt edges! Bake for approx. 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.
7.  Let rest until cooled, and decorate as you please. Or take it up a notch and impress your guests with our Caramel Showstopper.

 

Tip: refrigerate the cake until ready to decorate. This will ensure that the cake isn’t too crumbly, and less crumbs means smoother icing.