Over the last few years, I’ve been experimenting with perfecting a vegan recipe for my family’s favourite moist chocolate cake. I used to make Chocolate Cloud Cake for their birthdays, but of course that recipe is composed of butter, eggs and cream. So I’ve been trialing various combinations to achieve the same densely-moist texture and depth of chocolate flavour in that recipe - and voila! - this one ticks all the boxes and more.

On the first bite, my son’s eyes widened with delight. By the end of his first piece, he declared that not only was it totally sensational, but that it tasted even BETTER than the non-vegan recipe I was trying to emulate.

The ganache alone is worth keeping in your fast-dial of favourite recipes, because it has the flavour of chocolate almonds. (Not surprisingly, as it’s made with chocolate and almond butter.)

The torte is baked in two pans, then joined with the delicious ganache. I happened to have a little raspberry jam on hand, so I spread a thin layer of this on the bottom layer, before adding the ganache, and it added an extra dimension of flavour. If you have any jam available (apricot or fig maybe) then you could use that, or simply leave that out if you want to minimise the sugar.

The cake is not overly-sweet, which is how we now prefer our desserts in our family. (I’m slowly cutting down the amount of sugar in all my baking, as everybody gets used to the change in flavour.) But it’s plenty sweet enough, especially when served with fresh seasonal fruits. As it’s late summer here in Australia, strawberries and figs are plentiful, but it would pair well with any poached or fresh fruit.

If you don’t have a high-speed blender, you can grind the almonds (with the raw sugar) in a food processor. And if you don’t have that either, you could use ready-made ground almonds. But the flavour of freshly ground almonds is far superior, so it’s a step worth taking.

Chocolate Almond Torte with Ganache

(vegan : egg-free : dairy-free : wholemeal)

WET  INGREDIENTS
1 ½ cups almond milk
100 gm dark chocolate
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon coconut (or apple cider) vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste 

DRY  INGREDIENTS
1 cup almonds whole
1 cup raw sugar
1 cup wholemeal spelt flour
½ cup cacao
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

• Line two 22 cm cake tins with baking paper and set aside.

• In a small saucepan, mix the almond milk and chopped chocolate. Bring to a simmer, stirring gently then turn off and let the chocolate finish melting in the warm almond milk. 

• Add remaining wet ingredients, stir well and set aside.

• In a high speed blender, mix the almonds and sugar. Blitz until finely ground, then tip into a large mixing bowl.

• Add remaining dry ingredients to mixing bowl and stir well to combine. 

• Stir wet mixture into dry mixture and stir gently with a wooden spoon until evenly mixed.

• Pour half of mixture into each of the lined tins, and bake for 30 - 35 minutes, or until the tops spring back when gently pressed with a finger.

• Leave in pans to cool for 5 minutes. Turn out onto cooling trays to cool completely before assembling with ganache.

  
  GANACHE
  150 gm dark chocolate
  1 cup almond milk
  ½ cup maple syrup
  ½ cup almond butter 

• Place milk and chopped chocolate in a small saucepan and heat very gently, stirring until the chocolate is just melted. Turn off heat, stir in maple syrup and keep stirring until the mixture is super smooth.

• Set aside to cool for 5 minutes, then stir in almond butter until mixed. Set aside to cool.

TO ASSEMBLE:
Place one cake layer on serving plate, and spread with about ⅓ of the ganache. Carefully place second layer on top, and spread with remaining ganache. Refrigerate assembled cake until the ganache is set (approx 20 minutes). 

If you try the recipe, please let us know in the comments how it turned out for you.

Happy baking!