Can I Make The Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake With Oil Instead Of Butter?

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake (from HOW TO EAT) is a cake that has a light, almost mousse-like texture when it is served warm and is ideal as a dessert that you can bake before you sit down for dinner as it is at its best about an hour after it comes out of the oven.

The recipe uses butter that is melted with chocolate, coffee, water, sugar and (if using) liqueur, before the flour and cocoa are added. In theory this means that you should be able to use oil as the butter is used in liquid form. However, butter is only 80% butter fat, the rest being mostly milk solids. So if you use all oil then the cake could become a little greasy and dense. You could use 225g oil (which is about 220mls or 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons) and 25g (scant 2 tablespoons) of a plant-based yogurt, but you should add the yogurt with the flour and cocoa as it could split if it was warmed with the oil and other ingredients. Butter also adds flavour, though with the chocolate, coffee and cocoa, this would be less noticeable. However, you can now get very good plant-based butter alternatives that have a good flavour and we would suspect that using one of these instead of butter would be a better alternative for a dairy-free option.