Some years ago, a Pastry friend and I had a cake commission for a dairy-free cake and cupcakes for a VERY allergic lady’s birthday. It was to be a black heart with a spiderweb in frosting, and of course everything had to be completely dairy-free. As I remember it, the recipient wasn’t overly fond of the flavour of soy, and because it was to be a party with however many unknown allergies in the participants, the cake should be nut-free as well. Whew!  It may seem almost commonplace now to make cakes that cater to those with life-threatening allergies, but it’s actually a relatively new phenomenon; There used to really only be a very few specialty cake manufacturers who worked in that niche market, and their products were usually  quite over-priced, and generally not that good. It goes without saying that I didn’t want that to be the case with this cake, and so my Pastry friend and I worked hard on developing a recipe that was both delicious yet relatively simple, and that everyone at the party would enjoy, not just the one with the allergies!

This cake doesn’t suffer from the lack of dairy, nuts, or soy; in fact, it’s so delicious and fudge-like and chocolatey, it may become your new favourite even if you don’t have  any of the above allergies.

Dairy-Nut-Soy Free Chocolate Cake

Makes 2-8″ round layers, or 24 cupcakes

Prep Time: 20 minutes  |  Cook Time: 40 minutes

• 5 ½ cups AP flour
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 t. baking soda
• ½ t. salt
• 1 ½ cups soy-free/dairy-free shortening, or coconut oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1½ cup CHOCOLATE rice or almond milk
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 2 T. vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil two 8” round cake pans and dust with cocoa powder. Set aside.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Cream the shortening with the sugar until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition.
4. Add the rice milk, maple syrup and vanilla, beating until combined.
5. Using a wooden spoon, gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet in several additions until just combined.
6. Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-40 minutes, rotating half-way through, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean.

Dairy-Free Chocolate Frosting

Makes about 2 cups

Prep Time: 5 minutes

• 2 cups icing sugar
• ¼ cup (½ stick) dairy-free soy margarine, softened, or equivalent amount of coconut oil
• ¼ cup plain unsweetened almond milk or rice milk
• ¾ cup unsweetened pure cocoa powder
• ½ tsp. vanilla

1. In a medium-large mixing bowl, cream the powdered sugar with the shortening until mixture is thick but well combined.
2. Add the milk, cocoa powder and vanilla, and continue to mix until smooth.