
Hope Mdakane's Chickpea Sponge
Ingredients
- 60 g Silken Tofu (firm)
- 5 g Lemon Juice
- 20 g Almond Milk
- 30 g Coconut Oil
- 250 g Apple Sauce
- 35 g Blackstrap Molasses
- 100 g Chickpea Flour
- 20 g Cornflour
Instructions
- Mix tofu, lemon juice and almond milk in a blender and blend until smooth to create a crème fraiche.
- Melt the coconut oil over a bain-marie and add in the crème fraiche.
- In a mixer, whisk the apple sauce and molasses until completely combined.
- Fold in the sieved flour and cornflour.
- Fold in the crème fraiche.
- Bake at 160 ̊C for about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden-brown on top and set aside. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Video
Notes
- Don’t open the oven too soon or too much during baking.
- Alternate the milk and flour mixtures as you’re combining your cake mix. This helps to avoid the mixture splitting and leaving you with a dense cake at the end.
- Make sure you beat your sponge batter long enough so it’s fluffy and full of air. This is an essential step to ensuring your vegan cake is pillowy soft.
- To make this a chocolate sponge, just replace 50g of flour with cocoa powder and add in ½ tsp of espresso powder.
- For a citrus cake, just add in the zest of 2 fruits right at the beginning stage.
- …or dot in a few fresh raspberries and flaked almonds into the cake mixture before baking!
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