Espresso In Chocolate Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Dark And Sumptuous Chocolate Cake from SIMPLY NIGELLA) is a moist chocolate cake that is also vegan and extremely easy to make. The batter is pretty liquid, due to the addition of hot water, which helps to give the cake moisture and a soft, spongy texture.

The espresso powder is included as coffee and is a very complementary flavour to chocolate and helps to round out and deepen the flavour from the cocoa. Espresso powder is also easy to mix into the flour. You could omit the powder and instead dissolve 1 tablespoon of regular instant coffee granules in the 375ml/1½ cups of hot water, before adding the water to the cake. And for the icing use 60ml/¼ cup strong coffee instead of the water and espresso powder. The coffee taste will not be noticeable in the cake and we would prefer not to omit the coffee altogether as the cake won't quite taste as good.