Paddington Cake

Saw on the Vegan Village noticeboard the other day that Ronny is updating the fabulous little book that is the Cake Scoffer. If you don't own a copy I would highly recommend it. It's only £1.25 and money goes to charity. You can get it here from Animal Aid. It's a great one to buy for people who have a vegan in their life and panic at the thought of making egg and dairy free cake. The recipes are super easy and everything I've tried from coffee and walnut cake to trifle to cheesecake has been good.

I've entered a recipe to be considered for inclusion in the new edition. It's my chocolate marmalade 'Paddington Cake' which I came up with for a homemade cake competition at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival a few years ago. I didn't win but I did score a 10 from one of the judges.

It was inspired by the taste of the then vegan 'Green and Blacks - Maya Gold' chocolate. Here's the recipe if you'd like to have a go.

Paddington Cake - a chocolate orange layered sponge with a secret ingredient!

1+1/2 cups of plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1+1/2 cups of soy or rice milk

1/2 cup of sunflower oil

1/2 cup of orange marmalade

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1+1/4 cups of caster sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Grease and line the bottom of 2 round cake pans with baking paper or a loaf tin (cut the cake in half lengthways when cooled and sandwich the halves together).

Sieve the first 6 ingredients together and mix. In a separate bowl and using an electric whisk combine the rest of the ingredients. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Divide between the 2 baking pans or fill the loaf tin and bake for 40-45 mins until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pans.

Sandwich together with the following filling.

Orange fudge frosting: (use half for the middle and half for the top of the cake)

1/4 cup of sunflower margarine (Suma, Pure etc)

3 tablespoons of marmalade

1 teaspoon of orange liqueur (Eg.Triple sec or Cointreau)

2 cups of sieved icing sugar

Put the margarine and marmalade in a pan and melt over a gentle heat. Once melted remove from the heat and stir in the orange liqueur. Stir in the icing sugar. Once the mixture is cool use half to sandwich the cake together and half for the top.