Lisa's Chocolate extravaganza

Vegan chocolate sponge with a chocolate avocado icing

My housemate, fellow vegan and brilliant cook surprised us all with a sensational vegan chocolate cake last night. It scratched that indulgent pudding itch than can be hard to reach with vegan options available in the shop. Here's the recipe:
Recipe
3 cups bread flour
6 Tablespoons green and blacks cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup mashed avocado (about 1 medium avocado)
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons malt vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Sift together all dry ingredients in large bowl, except sugar. Set aside.
Mix all wet ingredients in medium bowl, including sugar and avocado.
Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk together until smooth. Pour batter into silicon cake tin.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
Let cool on rack for 15 minutes before turning cakes out of the pan. Frost cakes with Avocado icing and let them sit for another 15 minutes.
Avocado Buttercream Icing
8 oz. of Avocado (about 2 small avocados)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp of green and blacks cocoa powder
The whole thing took about an hour to make from start to finish and all the ingredients were already in our cupboard. Lisa swapped regular flour out for much heavier bread flour which really added to the rich consistency. Don't be put off by the idea of avocado in cake. It really works. In the cake itself it just adds moisture that you need to replace when you take out the eggs. In the icing it brings a bright and fragrant quality that you wouldn’t necessarily identify as avocado but you would identify as delicious! My husband hates avocado and he loved this cake.
If you want to make it healthier you can swap out the sugar for agave nectar. This might take a bit of experimenting, so hopefully Lisa will have a go at this and I will be on hand to help her with moral support, critiquing and eating the results!
In conclusion it's a gooey, solid, indulgent chocolate cake that makes you realise being vegan doesn’t mean you have to give up on cakey treats! Oh yeah, and it's much better for you than a dairy based cake! Horaaaaaaay!