For our last night on my France holiday, my grandparents hosted a big family dinner party which, in traditional French style, consisted of a lot of courses! I offered to help make the desserts as I wanted to show off how delicious Vegan sweets can be, and how you largely can’t tell the difference in the taste.

I made a very risky lemon tofu cheesecake (recipe to follow soon) and decided a good old fashioned chocolate cake was a good back up, just in case the tofu was a little too crazy for everyone else! My nan suggested adding prune paste for extra taste and moisture; something I now consider her a legend for doing so, as it was out of this world! The paste made the cake super soft and gooey, and gave it an amazing spongey glaze on the outside.

We used a jar of paste already in the cupboard, but you can easily make your own by combing 6 ounces of pitted prunes with 6 tablespoons hot water in a food processor; processing until smooth.

Vegan Chocolate and Prune Cake

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup coco powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 sp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 3 table spoons of prune paste

Method

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together and sieve into a bowl
2. In a jug, mix the water, vinegar, vanilla essence and prune paste and stir until combined
3. Combine all the wet and dry ingredients together and fill a lined, deep circular cake tin (this baby sure does rise!)
4. Bake in the oven at 170 °C for about 30-45 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean
5. Leave to cool for about an hr and dust with icing sugar