Perfect St. Patrick’s Day Irish Cake Recipe

I use a lot of fatty ingredients in this vegan cake, and I make no excuse for that. After all, it's for St. Patrick's Day! You may however replace some or all of the vegan margarine with apple sauce, but I have not tested this method myself, so I cannot guarantee that it will work the same. But go ahead and give yourself an excuse to eat this deliciously sweet cake for the day!

Perfect St. Patrick’s Day Irish Cake Recipe [Vegan]

Ingredients

For the cake

• 1 cup + 2 tbsp. vegan margarine
• 1 cup + 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 2.5 cups self-raising flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup soy milk (or another non-dairy milk)
• 5 tbsp. dark cocoa powder
• 1 flax ‘egg’ (1 tbsp. ground flaxseeds + 3 tbsp. warm water)

For the ‘Baileys’ cream filling

• 1 can of low-fat (or regular) coconut milk
• 1 shot of whiskey (or more!)
• 1 shot of espresso
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar

For the chocolate covering

• 1 cup dark chocolate
• 4 tbsp. soy cream (or soy milk works too)

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven at 180ºC/356ºF. Prepare the flax ‘egg’ and set it aside.
2. Cream together the vegan margarine and brown sugar. Little by little, add some flour and some non-dairy milk until both ingredients run out. Stir in the baking powder, cocoa powder and the flax eggs. Pour the batter into two small cake tins, or if you only have one, like me, you can bake a tall small cake and cut it in half when it is baked and cooled. If you have two tins, bake for 35-40 minutes; if you have only one tin, bake the cake for 45 minutes.
3. While the cake bakes you can get on with the filling. In a saucepan boil down the coconut milk and sugar until reduced to at least a quarter of its original volume. When the cream has become very thick (thick enough that it won’t run down the sides of you cake when you press the second tier on the first tier of the cake) you can take it off the heat and stir in the whiskey and coffee. Let it cool and rest in the fridge for a quarter of an hour.
4. For the chocolate covering, simple heat a little bit of soya cream in a small saucepan over medium heat. Break the chocolate into small pieces that you drop into the pan. Stir continuously so that the chocolate doesn’t burn. When all bits of chocolate have melted away, take the saucepan off the heat and let it cool. (DO NOT PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE.)
5. When the cake is cooled, and only then, you may slice it in half horizontally. Carefully lift the upper half of the cake and place it aside. Spread the Baileys cream over the top of the bottom half of the cake. Put the upper half of the cake back on top of the lower half, pressing only lightly to secure it. Finally, pour the chocolate cream over the top, let it dribble and drool over the sides of the cake. Now you may refrigerate the cake for a few hours before serving it. The mild and cool flavour of dairy-free vanilla ice cream is wonderful with this rich, dense cake.

Notes

Another note: the cake kept well enough in the fridge for up to three days, but it did get denser and ‘mushier,' shall I say. The covering also shrunk and cracked, so I would suggest keeping the cake at room temperature if possible.

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/perfect-st-patricks-day-irish-cake-recipe/