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1 ½ cups standard flour (or gluten-free flour mix without raising agent)

1 cup caster sugar

½ cup dark, good-quality baking cocoa (look for ‘dark’ on the label for best results)

1 ¼ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil (or rice bran or grape seed or sunflower)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or white, malt or apple cider vinegar)

2-3 tsp pure vanilla essence

1 ½ cups water (or cooled coffee)

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Chocolate icing

150g chopped dark chocolate 
(50% cocoa solids – use dairy-free if needed)

125g butter (or 150ml coconut cream)

1 tbsp olive oil, grape seed oil or rice bran oil

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Method

Prep time – 5 minutes

Cooking time – 50 minutes

Serves 6-8

Preheat the oven to 🔥 160c regular bake. 🔥

Grease a 20-22cm cake tin and dust all over with cocoa (make sure the tin isn’t too big or the cake will be a little flat). Or, just plonk a piece of baking paper in (that’s what I do now). If your tin is too big, it won’t rise properly.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk to combine evenly. Make a large well in the centre.

Pour the olive oil, vinegar, vanilla and water into the well. Using the whisk, start in the middle and stir the mixture GENTLY in a circular motion until the mixture is combined to a smooth batter – don’t worry if there a few small lumps, these will disappear in the oven. Don’t go crazy or you’ll flatten all the bubbles.

Bake just below the centre of the oven for ⏰ about 50 minutes, ⏰ or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven.

If you’re going to serve it as a cake, ❄️ let it cool ❄️ in the tin for ⏰ 10 minutes ⏰ before turning it out onto a rack. You can either dust with icing sugar to serve or ice it when cool (see below).

For a delicious pudding, dust with icing sugar and serve straight hot, straight from the tin, with ice cream.

The cake keeps in an airtight container for about ⏰ 4 days ⏰ (if it actually lasts that long I’ll be surprised).

Chocolate icing

Place the chopped chocolate and butter (or coconut cream) in heatproof bowl, then set over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the water touch the bowl).
 Stir until melted, then remove the bowl from the saucepan stir in the oil.

Leave to cool at room temperature until it’s thick enough to spread on the cake. If you try and speed it up by putting it in the fridge, keep an eye on it as it will need stirring often.