A vegan chocolate cake to die for from Nigella Lawson’s Simply Nigella, For this recipe you will need a leakproof 20cm/8in springform cake tin.

Ingredients

For the icing

• 75g/2½oz coconut butter (this is not the same as oil)
• 50g/1¾oz soft dark sugar
• 1½ tsp instant espresso
• 1½ tbsp cocoa powder
• 150g/5½oz dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), finely chopped

For the cake

• 225g/8oz plain flour
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 1½ tsp instant espresso powder
• 75g/2½oz cocoa powder
• 300g/10½oz soft dark brown sugar
• 375ml/13fl oz hot water, from a recently boiled kettle
• 90ml/3fl oz (or 75g/2½oz if weighed when solid) coconut oil
• 1 tbsp edible rose petals, to decorate
• 1 tbsp chopped pistachios, to decorate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and pop on a baking sheet at the same time.
2. For the icing, put all of the icing ingredients except the chopped chocolate into a heavy-based saucepan and add 4 tablespoons of cold water. Bring to the boil, making sure everything’s dissolved. Then turn off the heat but leave the pan on the hob. Quickly add the finely chopped chocolate and swirl the pan so that it is all underwater, so to speak. Leave for a scant minute, then whisk until you have a darkly glossy icing, and leave to cool. I find this takes exactly the amount of time the cake takes to make, cook and cool. But do give the icing a stir with a spatula every now and again.
3. Line the bottom of your springform cake tin (you will need a good, leakproof one as this is a very wet batter) with baking parchment.
4. Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, instant espresso, and cocoa powder in a bowl and fork to mix.
5. Mix together the sugar, water, coconut oil until the coconut oil has melted, and stir into the dry ingredients. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes. Though do check at the 30-minute mark to see if it is already done. When it’s ready, the cake will be coming away from the edges of the tin and a cake tester will come out clean, apart from a few crumbs. This is a fudgy cake and you don’t want to overdo it.
6. Once the cake is cooked, transfer the tin to a wire rack and let the cake cool in its tin. Once completely cool remove from the tin.
7. Turn to your icing, and give it a good stir with a spatula to check it is at the right consistency. It needs to be runny enough to cover the cake, but thick enough to stay (mostly) on the top. So pour over the cake, and use a spatula to ease the icing to the edges, if needed. If you wish to decorate, now is the time to do it. In which case, sprinkle joyously with rose petals and chopped pistachios or anything else that your heart desires; otherwise, leave it gleaming darkly and, indeed, sumptuously. Leave to stand for 30 minutes for the icing to set before slicing into the cake.