This recipe is the love child of elements of the Spongy Chocolate Cake and the cream filling of the Double Chocolate Cream Tarts. The pairing is glorious enough to deserve its own post and provide inspiration for a fabulously fudgy, chocolatey and creamy celebration cake.

A chocolate sandwich cake to me is one of the best indulgences. Perfect for a birthday, any other special occasion or just because you feel like it 😉 The dark chocolate and the natural sweeteners (date paste and some maple syrup) result in a “mature” semisweet richness, while providing more fiber and nutrition than a standard chocolate cake. The fact that it got the stamp of approval from my Dad (a sceptic of vegan desserts, after experiencing some epic fails from my early plant-based days) was a reason for celebration on its own!

The cake is delicious as is, adorned with fresh berries or with a layer of jam in addition to the cream.

Fudgy Dark Chocolate Sandwich Cake

Makes: ca. 8 large slices

Ingredients: Chocolate Cake

Dry ingredients

• 300g flour (white or light spelt)
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 9 tbsp cacao powder
• 2 pinches salt

Wet ingredients

• 510 ml plant milk (I like rice or oat)
• 2 tbsp liquid sweetener (e.g. date syrup, maple syrup, agave nectar, rice syrup)
• 100g dark chocolate, melted (I used 64% baking chocolate)
• ca. 5 drops apple cider vinegar
• 170g date paste*

*The dates must be soft. I use the Sukari pitted dates from Dattelmann (international website), which are gorgeously squidgy. You can use the discount code “blueberry15” for 15% off items not already on sale {brand collaboration}. I have been using and recommending them to friends for years, as the dates are great quality and I find it cheaper ordering in bulk than buying smaller packets in the store – especially as I eat dates pretty much every day. If your dates are dry, try soaking them in hot water first and draining, before blending. You can also buy pre-blended date paste in packets of 1 kg, which makes life that tiny bit easier!

Ingredients: Chocolate Cream

• 230g silken tofu (drain the water from the package; further pat dry with a kitchen towel if necessary)
• 5 tbsp cacao powder
• 5 tbsp maple syrup
• 4 tbsp peanut butter (the less runny it is the more firm the cream will be)
• good pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 °C (non-fan), with the baking tray already inside.
2. For the cake combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Separately combine and blend the wet ingredients. I like to warm up the mylk in a small pan, remove from the stove and add the chocolate in chunks, stirring until incorporated. After adding the maple syrup and apple cider vinegar I pour the mixture over the dates / date paste and blend using my handheld blender.
4. Fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and pour the batter into a greased round springform cake tin. (Mine has a diameter of ca. 24 cm, but a slightly smaller one should work well too; you can also turn this into mini cakes by using a muffin tin and adjusting the oven time).
5. Bake for ca. 25 minutes (a toothpick should come out clean) and leave to cool in the tin. 
6. For the chocolate cream simply blend together all ingredients (silken tofu, cacao powder, maple syrup, peanut butter and salt).
7. Once the cake has cooled (it could crumble if you try too soon!), carefully slice in half horizontally. Spread the chocolate cream on top of both layers (if using jam, spread the top of the bottom layer with jam first). Gently assemble the two layers (I used the flat side of two knives to hoist the top layer up on each side – there are probably better techniques, just make sure that the cake is fully cooled and that you don’t rush this step), add any desired final touches such as berries, chocolate shavings, a drizzle of almond butter, etc. Place any leftovers in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Feel free to tag @blueberrysmiles22 if you share your creations on Instagram, so I can share in the joy 🙂