Black & White Cake (v)

I found a recipe for this cake on one of the many food blogs that I frequent and I'll be damned if I can actually find the original recipe so I can bow down and praise the person I should be crediting for this cake. Still, I took it and made it vegan and the lovely S & D were around last night and both enjoyed it quite a lot. It's sinful, it's decadent, and I think I gained a kilo just baking the thing. Seriously though, if you have the time, you should try it. It's gorgeous.

Cake Ingredients:

3 oz (or about 80g) couverture semisweet dark chocolate
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch)
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 tsp Egg Replacer (whisked in 6 tbsp water)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups soy milk (mix in 3-4 tbsp white vinegar until it's the consistency of buttermilk)
3/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 180°C. and grease 10-inch round cake pans. (9 inch cake pans will overflow - use 3 pans if you have to, I certainly did!)

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl mix egg-replacer, oil, soy milk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture, beating with the mixer until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined. (I made sure there weren't any sizeable lumps!)

Divide batter between pans and bake until a tester inserted in center comes out clean. (The original recipe said to bake an hour - I baked these about 35 minutes and they were done - all depends on your oven, I suppose.)

Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Place in freezer on rack if you want to frost it quickly.

Frosting: You can use whatever favourite frosting you like - I used my old easy standard:

1 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
3 tbsp soy milk

Blend until fluffy and decorate as you will. I gave mine a bit of a Hallowe'en theme!