Bookmark this page, because once you’ve made this vegan salted caramel chocolate cake, you’re going to want to keep coming back for more! Delicious warm from the oven with ice cream. I might even have had some for breakfast 🙂
Ingredients
150ml soy milk for the cake, 400ml soy milk for the caramel and 150ml for the icing
60ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract for the cake and 1 tsp for the salted caramel
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
150g self raising flour
240g caster sugar for the cake and 100g caster sugar for the caramel
40g vegan cocoa powder (I used Green and Black’s)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cornflour
200g vegan chocolate
2 tbsp vegan butter (I used Naturli)
Tsp flaked sea salt
Optional – vegan chocolate vermicelli.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180.
Combine the 150ml soy milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside.
Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp salt, then add the oil, vanilla, and milk and vinegar.
Bake for 30 minutes until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.
Then make the icing by melting the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water, then combining the 150ml soy milk with the melted chocolate and the butter. Wait for the cake to cool before icing it.
Then make the caramel by adding 100g caster sugar, 400ml soy milk and the cornflour. Bring to a boil, continually whisking to keep smooth, then simmer until it’s smooth and thick. Add the sea salt and the vanilla extract.
Sprinkle with some chocolate vermicelli. Pour the caramel over the cake and serve with ice cream or cream!
Our 2020 Christmas gift guide was one of our most popular posts last year – here’s our guide for 2021. We both love Christmas (especially Caroline who always promises not to watch any Christmas movies or put up any decorations until December 1 … and always fails!) yet despair at the waste and the over-consumption this time of year brings. Here is our 2021 Christmas gift guide to inspire you, whatever your budget!
Take the Plunge!
For the swimmer in your life, or actually for anyone who loves the water whether they’re in it or not, The Art of Wild Swimming books, by our friends Anna Deacon and Vicky Allan will tempt anyone to go running for their nearest loch, lake, river or beach. These handy guides are full of beautiful photos and expert advice on local swimming spots, written by the local people who know them best – including Colin, who contributed to the sea swimming chapter and the section on his childhood haunt, the River Teith! The Art of Wild Swimming Scotland and The Art of Wild Swimming England and Wales is out now, published by Black & White.
Search Engine Optimised!
A foraging course with a local expert is an unusual and thoughtful gift for nature lovers and cooks who want to know a bit more about eating from the land, but who aren’t sure where to start and what to forage for. Wild Food UK run courses nationwide – check out their website for times and locations.
Sea buckthorn – a favourite with foragers, pictured here growing by Gullane beach in East Lothian
Christmas in focus
Hit your local charity shop to find photo frames – mine usually has a selection for 50p – £2 each, then download LaLaLab and choose your favourite photos from your phone to print – the turnaround is usually around 7 days. Fill up some frames with some wonderful memories from 2021 for a loved one. Or find a big frame, take out the picture, and make your own photo display with mini pegs and string.
Vegan wax wraps for baking gifts – Beeswax Wrap Co
Be calm
Calm is one of our favourite apps – full of brilliant exercises and meditations as well as gentle physical exercises to help bring peace to your inner self. Gift a subscription for 2022 to someone you think would love it too.
Travel is still something that feels pretty restricted, so how about an online AirBnb experience for someone who’s missing the chance to explore new cultures? You can choose anything from yoga delivered by an Indian yogi to meditation with a Buddhist monk, to a vegan cookery lesson from a New York chef. Or for the cook in your life, gift an online cooking lesson with a difference from Migrateful – the lessons are all given by UK migrants who are facing barriers to integration and finding a job due to legal and language challenges. There are lessons for a wide range of cuisines and dietary requirements – I’m looking forward to trying the veggie Syrian class.
Book a cookery lesson from a migrant chef at Migrateful and learn a completely new cuisine.
Seek and ye shall find
The best gifts are often the ones that don’t cost money but that the giver has spent time and love preparing. What about designing a nature walk for your loved one and giving them a voucher on the day? Research and plan your route first, choosing somewhere you know relatively well where you think you’ll find plenty of interesting wildlife. Download the Seek app so you can identify what to see along the way – then turn nature guide for the day and take your gift recipient on a walk to discover the flowers, plants, birds, trees and animals on their doorstep.
A well-planned nature walk costs nothing and could be the perfect gift this Christmas.
We were lucky enough to spend the weekend in the Cairngorms, in celebration of Colin’s auntie Sheila’s 70th birthday. As tourism season in the Highlands was coming to an end, auntie had booked the entire Cairngorm Lodge Youth Hostel for the festivities, which saw hordes of family from all corners of the UK and beyond descending on Glenmore one wet Friday in October.
Although time was short and we only had two nights and a full day, we made sure that we packed plenty in, including swimming in Loch Morlich, climbing a mountain, eating enough chilli and pizza to sink a ship and even bumping into some friends at a quiet lochan high up in the mountains!
Ryvoan Bothy on Meall a Buichaille
Where we stayed We stayed at the Cairngorm Lodge Youth Hostel – seven miles from Aviemore and just a two minute walk from the shores of Loch Morlich. It offers a range of rooms, from singles, twins and doubles to dormitories, with clean, modern showers and a large kitchen. There’s also a refectory, a conservatory with spectacular views of the mountains to enjoy over breakfast, and a large living room with a pool table.
What we did As well as ceilidhing the night away, eating our body weight in pizza, catching up over coffee and French toast made by Colin, and enjoying a few games of pool, we wanted to make the most of the stunning surroundings of the hostel.
Loch Morlich is one of our favourite Scottish lochs, where we’ve spent summers kayaking and swimming and winters walking round the beautiful Rothiemurchus forest that fringes the loch …. and swimming! It’s just across the road from the hostel, and with its wide golden sandy beach, views of the majestic Cairngorms and still, clear waters, it would have been rude not to (although I did just watch from the shore!) The temperature was a brisk 6.5 degrees, so no one stayed in for long. There were also paddle boarders and kayaks on the loch, undeterred by the chilly temperatures and rain.
Meall a’ Bhuachaille is a four hour circuit from the foot of the hostel, through pretty woodland and then on to the slopes of the 543m high mountain, leading to incredible views across to Loch Morlich and the Cairngorms. The last ten minutes of the ascent are steep, with steps instead of a path for much of it, so you’ll definitely feel you’ve earned a rest at the top. We sat in the sheltered cairn and replenished our energy with some sugared almonds from House of Bruar, where we’d stopped on the way up the road to Aviemore.
The way down leads you past an Lochan Uaine, where to our delight we encountered the Wardie Bay wild swimmers of Edinburgh, who’d taken a trip up to the Cairngorms for the weekend and had just enjoyed a dip in the green lochan. We also passed the Ryvoan bothy, which was kitted out for walkers with a fireplace, candles, table and cooking equipment – the hiker we met there looked very cosy enjoying some biscuits while his socks dried outside!
An Lochan Uaine
What we ate We all sat down to dinner on the Friday night in the large refectory, where Colin’s cousin Jenny was a total superstar and made three types of chilli, including this vegan chilli. She kindly shared the recipe, which serves 4.
Ingredients
1 stick celery, chopped
1 large white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced or chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
Splash of balsamic vinegar
1 tsp veg stock
2 tins chopped tomatoes
2 tins kidney beans
2 tins black beans
1-2 tsp chilli flakes depending on how spicy you like your chilli!
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Lime to season
Method
Heat a tbsp oil in a large wok and fry the onions over a medium heat for five minutes.
Add the garlic and spices and fry for another minute, then add the tomatoes, vinegar, beans, celery, stock and nutritional yeast.
Bring the mixture to the boil then leave to simmer on a low heat for 40 minutes.
