6 Minute Chocolate Cake

An easy and quick chocolate cake that’s in the oven in 6 minutes. Drizzled with a chocolate glaze, this is chocolate heaven and it’s vegan!  Jump to recipe. 

You NEED this cake in your baking arsenal. I am just going to come out and say it, this cake is a GAME CHANGER! It literally takes six minutes, yes six minutes to make. The hardest part is finding the ingredients in your pantry, or maybe getting out that baking tin from behind all the other baking tins and having them all fall all over the floor of your kitchen and then have to pick them all up. Meanwhile all the clatter wakes up your toddler who you just spent 45 min trying to get to sleep because he thinks he’s a ‘big kid’ and doesn’t need a nap. Just me?

I’m telling you, I’m going to change your world with this cake recipe. I used to be such an organised person. Okay, that’s not quite true, I like to look back with rose tinted glasses and believe I was organised but actually my life was just a touch less chaotic when I didn’t have kids. Now, most days are full blown chaos 24/7.

The chaos usually reaches a peak around 5pm when we have just got home from daycare pick up, been stuck in traffic, kids are hungry, cat is complaining and I have to get dinner ready ASAP. Then my disorganised self remembers it’s Friday and we have friends coming over pizza. If I didn’t have kids I would probably shout ‘oh s*#t, f*#k’ but I have kids and would never ever mention such words in front of them (ha!). No problems with the pizza, I always have frozen pizza bases in the freezer but I generally forget about dessert…and did I mention one of my friend’s is vegan?

Does anyone else have these nights or in all honesty am I the only one that’s this disorganised? Please say it’s not just me!

No problemo! This cake is such a great dessert. It’s chocolatey, rich, but also so fluffy. It only uses store cupboard ingredients and the best part….it’s into the oven in six minutes! I am not exaggerating. I originally found this recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook years ago and they go so far as to suggest you can mix the cake in the baking tin so you’re not even left with a dirty bowl to clean. I find I need to line the cake tin with a piece of baking paper to stop it sticking, but I just throw the mixing bowl into the dishwasher so this extra step really isn’t a hassle.

I’m not vegan or even vegetarian for that matter but it’s so good to have recipes on hand that cater for all your friends and their diets. There’s nothing more inviting for friends than to know that they can relax and enjoy a meal at your house without worrying if they can eat it or not. This cake is vegan but you would seriously not even know it. It’s so rich and chocolatey! My husband who doesn’t consider it a meal without meat and dairy loves it.

Print this recipe out now because I guarantee at 5pm…next Friday…when chaos hits…you’ll be thanking me!

Enjoy.

xo Kate

P.S. This cake is also very handy for when you wake up in the morning and then your disorganised self remembers that you need to bring a cake to daycare today because it’s your kid’s last day in that classroom. Just saying.

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6 Minute Chocolate Cake

An easy and quick chocolate cake that’s in the oven in 6 minutes. Drizzled with a chocolate glaze, this is chocolate heaven and it’s vegan!

Prep Time 6 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 31 minutes

Servings 16

Author My Little Larder

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 1 1/2 cups plain all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup unrefined golden caster sugar or standard caster sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (rice bran, canola or even melted coconut oil, which gives a slight coconut flavour, work well)
• 1 cup cold strong brewed coffee (decaf if serving to kids)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp white vinegar

For the drizzle:

• 75 g/2.6oz dark chocolate (at least 70 percent cocoa solids, roughly chopped)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• pinch sea salt

To serve:

• chopped pistachios and freeze dried fruit or brightly coloured funfetti/sprinkles for kids

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F on bake. Grease and line a 20cm/8in square baking tin.
2. In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and sugar. Make a well in the centre and add oil, coffee, vanilla and vinegar. Stir to combine.
3. Pour into baking dish and bake for 20-25 min or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
4. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 10 min in the tin before turning out and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.
5. While cake is cooling make the chocolate drizzle. Place chocolate, coconut oil and salt in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally until both chocolate and oil have melted. Allow to cool and thicken.
6. Once at drizzle has thickened enough to pour over cake, pour over and scatter with pistachios and freeze dried fruit. Alternatively, sprinkle over some brightly coloured funfetti or sprinkles for kids.
7. Cake keeps for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Recipe adapted from the book Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.