Recipe from: slowly veggie! Vegetarisch & vegan genießen 02/2019, p. 111.

Christmas time is coming closer, it’s getting colder outside, and I feel very much like baking. My original plan for this weekend was to bake Springerle, Southern German aniseed cookies that need to be packed away and ripen for at least for weeks until you can eat them. Alas, no store near us had the traditional Springerle molds so that’ll have to wait. Instead I decided to bake this recipe for the “easiest cake in the world” from a vegetarian/vegan magazine I picked up at the supermarket.

Ingredients

Ingredients for a 26cm springform, a Bundt cake pan or 12 muffins. Preparation time: 20 min. Baking time: 40-50 min.

• 400g wheat or spelt flour (I used wheat flour)
• 240g sugar
• 1 sachet of baking soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• 180ml mild vegetable oil (I used rapeseed oil)
• 400ml water
• optionally: cocoa, matcha, berries, or lemon zests

Preheat oven to 180° top/bottom heat. Mix the flour with the sugar, the baking soda, and the salt. Using a second bowl, mix oil and water.

Slowly blend the dry mixture with the wet mixture. Only stir until the dough is even. At this point, you can fold in the optional ingredients. I used matcha because I was curious how it’d taste. The recipe didn’t specify how much to use so I experimentally put in one tablespoon. (Next time I’ll do two, though – see below.)

Fill the dough in a greased baking pin. (I used too much butter to grease the pan and it got mixed up with the dough.) Bake at 180° for 40-50 mins, using a knitting needle or a fine skewer to determine if the cake is done. Let the cake cool before turning it out.

The cake turned out well! It’s very fluffy, not to dry, and not too sweet either! Perfect for an afternoon coffee break. Next time I’ll use more matcha, though, because it’s disappointingly not-green. 😀 I might do icing as well, but for a first try, spontaneous baking session I’m pleased with the result overall.