Chocolate Cake 

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup vegan margarine (softened)
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 ½ cups soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup cocoa powder

Butter-cream Icing

1 cup vegan margarine (softened)
3 cups sifted icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-2 tablespoons soy milk
Red food coloring

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 9” round cake pans.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder together and set aside.

Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the applesauce and vanilla and mix well. Slowly mix in the flour, alternating with the soy milk. Continue to mix until well combined.

Pour an equal amount of batter into the 2 cake pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes and then gently invert them onto wire cooling racks.

To make the icing, beat margarine for about 30 seconds. Continue beating, adding the icing sugar ½ cup at a time. Beat on low speed till smooth. Add the vanilla and soy milk and beat again.

Ice when the cakes are completely cool

Note: Put a piece of parchment paper on the wire rack before placing the cakes on the rack.To get the icing that color I just added red food coloring (a few drops at a time) until I got the shade of pink I was looking for.

Claire Gosse is the author of the vegan cookbook series Are You Sure That's Vegan? She also runs VeganCooking.com.