Chocolate fairy cakes with chocolate buttercream


These cute little cakes are a real winner with kids. They have a great spongy consistency and are virtually indistinguishable from fairy cakes made in the standard egg/flour/butter way. The buttercream makes them irresistible (if you want a stiffer buttercream icing, just add more icing sugar).

For the chocolate fairy cakes
250ml soya milk (sweetened or unsweetened)
1 tsp lemon juice or cider vinegar
100g caster sugar
75ml sunflower oil
100g cornflour
50g gram (chickpea) flour
25g cocoa powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp baking powder (make sure it doesn't contain wheat flour)

For the buttercream
4 tbsp non-dairy margarine (eg. Pure)
1tbsp soya milk
25g cocoa powder
75g icing sugar

Switch oven on at 160C. Place the cake cases in the tray. Measure out the soya milk and add the lemon juice or vinegar (a vital step as it curdles the soya milk). Stir well and leave for a couple of minutes. Sift the flours, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a large bowl (this is necessary to remove the clumps of gram flour – I’m not one for unnecessary sifting). Add the sugar and oil, and then finally whisk in the soya milk in a steady stream until everything is well mixed.
Bake for 20 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.
To make the buttercream, beat all the ingredients together and then spoon or pipe onto your cakes. Top with a glacé cherry. The cakes will keep for a couple of days in an airtight container in the fridge.

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What's WIDE CIRCLE COOKING about?
Recipes about gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, egg-free, alcohol-free and vegan cooking.

By the way - don't forget to ask all your guests if they have an allergy (because the recipes use some unusual combinations and they may not expect to find citrus and soya in a chocolate cake, for example).
pps.if you are cooking for someone with an allergy, please read my allergy post first.