Chocolate & muscovado fudge cake

My insatiable sweet tooth knows almost no bounds, so cake is something I take very seriously. This dense, gooey (and incidentally vegan) chocolate cake made with coconut oil is as much of a hit with my two year-old as it is with my vegan brother. It was passed onto me by a kind American friend, hence oil rather than butter in the batter. It is such an easy cake to make: no creaming, no sifting. Be sure to use a tight-fitting cake tin, as the batter is quite wet and will run out if there are any gaps.

■ Serves 10 VEGETARIAN

For the icing

100g olive, coconut or vegetable oil,

plus extra for the tin

65g dark muscovado sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

200g dark chocolate finely chopped For the cake

200g plain or light spelt flour

1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

75g cocoa powder

250g dark muscovado sugar

75g olive, coconut or vegetable oil 1½ tsp cider vinegar

1 Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Oil and line a 20cm springform cake tin.

2 Put all the icing ingredients, except the chocolate, into a saucepan with 60ml cold water. Heat until everything is melted, making sure the mixture doesn’t boil, then turn off the heat, add the chocolate and leave it to sit. After about a minute, the chocolate should have melted. Whisk until you have a thick icing and set aside. It should be cool by the time the cake has baked and cooled.

3 To make the cake, whisk the flour, bicarbonate of soda, a good pinch of sea salt and the cocoa together in a bowl. Make sure there are no lumps.

4 In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, 375ml of just-boiled water, the oil and vinegar. Stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients, then pour into the prepared tin (it will be quite a wet batter). Bake for 30-40 mins.

5 When it is ready, the cake should have pulled away from the edges of the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Cool for 30 mins in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Spoon over the icing and decorate as you like (see ideas, above left).