Vegan Blackberry Cake

Method (blackberry compote)

1. Place the blackberries into a medium-sized saucepan and sprinkle over the sugar, cornflour / cornstarch and lemon juice.
2. Place on top onto the hob over a medium to high heat and bring to the boil. This will take around 5-8 minutes. Keep stirring with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon to prevent the mixture from sticking and burning. It will start to turn thick. Once thick, remove from the heat and allow to cool before using. As it cools, it will thicken up even more and turn into a jellified sauce.
3. Store in a sealed container in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. As the compote cools, it’ll turn thick. If this happens, give it a vigorous whisk before using.

Method (Cakes)

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c fan and line two, 6 inch loose base / push up cake tins with grease-proof paper. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine the dairy-free milk with the apple cider vinegar and whisk until fully combined. Set aside for 10 minutes to curdle. This creates a vegan ‘buttermilk’.
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well to combine.
4. Add the oil and lemon zest into the ‘buttermilk’ and whisk to combine.
5. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix.
6. Pour equal amounts of batter into the lined cake tins (it should be around 350g of batter in each tin). Make sure to tap the tins on the worktop to remove any air bubbles.
7. Add some of the blackberry compote (approximately 2 teaspoons into each batter), and swirl around the a knife. Don’t add too much compote, as this can effect the texture of the cake.
8. Pop the cakes into the centre of the preheated oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes. You will know they are done when you put a knife or skewer in and it comes out clean and they are springy to the touch. As the cakes have the compote, they might be sticker than usual when first out of the oven.
9. Place the cakes on a cooling rack and allow to cool fully.  Once cool, pop them into a sealed container to keep them fresh before frosting.

Method (buttercream)

1. In a large mixing bowl, add in the dairy-free butter and cream cheese, whip until creamy. I use a stand mixer with a balloon whisk attachment, a hand mixer will work great too.
2. Sift in the icing sugar and add in 2 tablespoons of blackberry compote, whip on high speed for a couple of minutes to incorporate it.
3. Pour in the aquafaba and whip for 5 minutes until it turns light and creamy. Don’t over whip it or it can become too soft. If it does, just add in more icing sugar until it’s thick and creamy. The buttercream should be airy and light. You might need to add in some more butter to get it to the right consistency.  Tip- If the buttercream ever looks like it’s splitting, add chunk’s more butter at a time while its still whipping on medium / high speed. It’ll come back together within a minute or two.
4. Stack and fill the cakes with some buttercream and compote (watch how i decorate this cake here). 
5. Place the second cake layer on top. Press it down gently so it sticks.
6. Crumb coat the whole cake with a little buttercream, then place into the freezer to firm up. This will take 3-5 minutes. You don’t want to actually freeze the cake, just set the buttercream firm. This helps with ease at applying the final coat. If you’d like to learn ‘how to ice cakes’ and applying buttercream, make sure to pick up a copy of my book. It will really help you!!
7. Apply a thick coat of buttercream all around the top and sides of the cake. Use a cake scraper or pallet knife to make it smooth.
8. Make decorative lines in the.buttercream using an small off set spatula (watch me do this step here).
9. Transfer any left over buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip nozzle (I use a Wilton 2D), and pipe a decorative swirl along the top edge of the cake.
10. Cut some fresh blackberries in half and stick them scattered around all over the sides of the cake. Finish with a mint leaf for decoration (optional). Check out the photos on this post for reference.