Vegan Chocolate Torte Cake

After giving up chocolate for Lent (I am a serious addict – an every day user actually) I needed something really top notch to welcome me back into the world of cocoa love. My mother used to make this cake every year for my father’s birthday. The only difference between her’s and mine is that she used freshly whipped cream instead of frosting to complete her torte. The cake recipe itself is vegan and since many store bought icings are actually dairy free, that is the route that I went for mine. I’ll post the cake recipe below and however you chose to top it off is up to you! Enjoy!

Sift together (twice):

3 cups of flour

2 cups of sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

6 tbsp (heaping) of cocoa

Add:

2 tbsp vanilla

2 tbsp vinegar

2/3 cup cooking oil

2 cups cold water

Mix together with an electric mixer for 2 minutes or until smooth

Grease two round cake pans, line them with wax paper, and grease again (I don’t know why… that’s just the way she wrote it and that’s what I do!)

Distribute your cake mix evenly between the two pans

Bake at 375 degrees for around 30 minutes

Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove and peel off the wax paper strips

Let cakes completely cool and then cut each in half horizontally to wind up with four cake layers

Ice each layer (or cover in whipped cream!) and enjoy. It will ROCK YOUR WORLD. 

*In the interest of full disclosure, the first time I tried to make this cake it exploded…like… literally exploded in the oven. I have NO idea what I did wrong. Maybe I used too much baking soda. I really have no idea. Anywho, if you try to make the cake and it comes to life and begins to crawl out of the pan and destroy your oven… sorry.