My daughter turned 10 recently so I needed a fabulous cake and I needed it to be free from wheat, egg, milk and nuts so her brother could have a slice. I made a double layer cake with two kinds of icing and orange chocolate shapes to decorate. It turned out gorgeous! Safe for my boy but still super yummy. The cake was adapted from this recipe http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/11223633/The-New-Baker-Vegan-and-gluten-free-chocolate-pumpkin-cake.html

Chocolate cake ingredients

240mls dairy free milk at room temperature (I used Koko)

2 teaspoons cider vinegar

120mls coconut oil melted

200g granulated sugar

125g Cocoa (I used Tesco’s own)

225g pumpkin purée (I used Libby’s tinned pumpkin, apple sauce also works)

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

2 teaspoons instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water

290g rice flour

60g potato starch

20g corn flour (tapioca also works)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

I baked the cake the night before so it would be cool for me to decorate on her birthday.

Heat oven to 180c/350f and grease two round cake tins

Combine the dairy free milk and the cider vinegar and allow to sit for 5 minutes

Place the pumpkin purée, sugar, coconut oil, vanilla and coffee in a large bowl and beat until smooth

Stir in the milk/vinegar mix

Sift remaining dry ingredients together and whisk to combine

Add to wet ingredients and mix until well combined. It will be quite thick

Divide the mix between the two tins, smooth and then bake for 30-35 minutes (I baked for 35 and my cakes were a teeny bit scorched)

Allow to cool completely in the tins

‘Butter’ icing

220g icing sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

6 tablespoons dairy free spread (I used Vitalite)

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tsp orange essence

Beat ingredients together until fluffy then pipe onto one cooled cake reserving some for attaching chocolates. I sliced off a thin layer of the cakes to even them out before icing.

Chocolate ganache icing

Half cup icing sugar (approx 75g)

1/2 tablespoon golden syrup

40ml tinned coconut milk (could use df cream)

90g dairy free chocolate (I used Plamil choc chips)

1 teaspoon orange essence

Place chocolate, coconut milk and syrup in a pot and heat gently stirring until melted, remove from the heat and stir in the orange essence and icing sugar

Place the second cake onto the iced cake then pour over the chocolate ganache.

I made chocolate woodland animals and trees by melting dairy free chocolate and stirring in orange essence then poring it into moulds and setting them in the freezer. I attached them to the sides of the cake using a splodge of the ‘butter’ icing. I used Tesco dairy free white chocolate buttons (contain soya) to write 10 on the top of the cake. The cake made 12 generous  slices. It was lovely on its own and it was lovely with dairy free Ice cream (and I believe it was lovely with custard). We ate it over 3 days and stored it in a plastic container on the kitchen counter.