Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe

300g all purpose flour

340g caster sugar

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

170g softened vegan margarine

120ml date syrup

360ml soy milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

115g cocoa powder

For the buttercream:

225g softened vegan margarine

330-450g sifted icing sugar

2 tsps vanilla.

How to:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2x 9" round cake pans. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder together and set aside. Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the date syrup and vanilla, mix well. Mix in the flour then the soy milk, mixing well until combined. Pour an equal amount of batter into the 2 cake pans. Bake for 30-40mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in pans for ten minutes then gently invert onto wire cooling racks to cool completely.

To make the icing, beat margarine for about 30 seconds. Continue beating, adding the icing sugar a little at a time. Beat until smooth. Add the vanilla. Decorate with grated plain chocolate and seasonal fruit.

Recipe from the Vegan Society. Photo: Camyoga.

Vegan Hollandaise Sauce Recipe

Earlier this year i took a trip to santa monica where i experienced the vegan eggs benedict at real food daily, a fabulous vegan restaurant there. It has inspired many dishes since then, in my home and at camyoga (the legendary vegan brunch!) so i was delighted to find a really good vegan hollandaise recipe, with which to impress my non vegan friends. Louise x

Vegan Hollandaise Sauce:

3 Tablespoons Vegan margarine 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour pinch of turmeric 1 cup unsweetened soy milk 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast juice of 1/2 a lemon 1 Tablespoon vegan mayonnaise (i use plamil organic egg free, but the recipe also works fine without) Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the vegan margarine over a low heat, then add the flour and stir, cooking gently for a minute. Add the turmeric (this just adds the colour, so just a little). Slowly whisk in the soya milk. Boil gently for 2 minutes. Then take off the heat and add the nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast adds a 'cheesy' taste and is quite a strong flavour, so add up to 2 tbsp according to your taste.Then add the lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Finally add the vegan mayo. This recipe works fine without the mayo too if you don't have any.

I had mine served with sea cakes, wilted spinach, sliced crispy potatoes and balsamic tomoatoes.

Delicious!