'Happiness' – vegan cardamom sponge

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This vibrant, sunny cake recipe by Fabrizio Marino makes a fantastic dairy-free dessert. With hazelnuts, lemon and juicy strawberries providing bursts of complementary flavours and textures, this vegan sponge recipe is bound to bring plenty of happiness to your dinner table. To keep the cake vegan, use icing sugar instead of honey when making the strawberry icing.

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Vegan cardamom sponge

  • 330g of 00 flour
  • 250g of wholemeal flour
  • 60g of chickpea flour, or hemp flour
  • 450g of brown sugar
  • 5g of baking powder
  • 4g of lemon zest
  • 3g of ground cardamom
  • 600g of soya milk
  • 60g of lemon juice
  • 450g of sunflower oil

Hazelnut sauce

  • 300g of hazelnuts, toasted
  • 350g of cane sugar
  • 60g of soy sauce
  • 120g of water

Lemon glaze

Strawberry icing

To finish

Equipment

  • Hand blender
  • 20cm cake tin
  • Food processor
  • Piping bag and nozzle

Method

1
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4
2
To make the sponge, mix together the dry ingredients and lemon zest in a large bowl. In a separate dish, mix together the milk and lemon juice and slowly add the sunflower oil, using a hand blender to create an emulsion
  • 330g of 00 flour
  • 250g of wholemeal flour
  • 60g of chickpea flour, or hemp flour
  • 450g of brown sugar
  • 5g of baking powder
  • 4g of lemon zest
  • 3g of ground cardamom
  • 600g of soya milk
  • 60g of lemon juice
  • 450g of sunflower oil
3
Slowly pour the emulsion into the dry ingredients, mixing well until thoroughly combined
4
Once the ingredients have combined to form a smooth mixture, pour the cake batter into a 20cm round cake tin. Ensure the top is smooth and even, then place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes
5
Meanwhile, prepare the hazelnut sauce. Blitz the hazelnuts and sugar together in a food processor until the nuts form small chunks, then add the soy sauce and water and blitz again. Set aside until required
  • 300g of hazelnuts, toasted
  • 350g of cane sugar
  • 120g of water
  • 60g of soy sauce
6
For the lemon glaze, boil the rice milk with the sugar, lemon juice and zest, stirring in the cornflour to thicken. Once the glaze has thickened, remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool, refrigerating until ready to use
7
For the strawberry icing, blitz together the strawberries and honey until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and set aside until required
8
To finish, cut the sponge cake in half horizontally and arrange a layer of strawberries on top of the bottom sponge. Spoon over half of the hazelnut sauce and top with another layer of strawberries
9
Replace the top layer of sponge and smooth the remaining hazelnut sauce around the outside of the cake. Cover the top of the cake evenly in the lemon glaze. Pipe the message in strawberry icing across the top of the cake and garnish with a whole strawberry
First published in 2015

Fabrizio Marino is the poster boy for a new wave of Italian chefs.

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