For the Vegan Chocolate Cake

• Preheat oven to 170°C (338°F) and line 2 x 20 cm (8-inch) pans with grease-proof or baking paper. Important! - if you have a scale, I want you to weigh the mixing bowl you plan to whisk the final batter in. Write down the weight and set it aside.

  Weighing your final bowl allows you to subtract the bowl's weight, calculate the exact batter weight, and divide it perfectly 50/50 between your two pans.

  If you don't have a scale, I've got you covered in the Notes below.
• Combine the milk and apple cider vinegar in a mixing bowl and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl (this is the one you want to weigh) mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and sugar.
• Gently whisk the applesauce, oil, vanilla extract in to the milk/vinegar (buttermilk) mixture.
• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and lightly whisk before adding the boiling water and whisking gently until combined. Be careful whisking the boiling water. OK, now we want to work efficiently to get the batter whisked and into the pans to limit the amount of time the acid is activating with the baking soda outside the oven. Using either method outlined in Note 2. distribute the batter between the two pans.
• Pop the pans in the oven and bake for 33-36 minutes or until a skewer comes away from the centre cleanly.
• Remove from the oven and sit the cakes for 10 minutes before turning them out to cool completely.
• Now it's up to you how you want to dress your cake. Either, place one cake, flat side up, and top with your favourite frosting. Place the second cake on top, add more frosting and decorate with fresh fruit to serve. Or, you can try to cut the slices in half to creating thinner layers (which is what I did for the photographs). Either will work beautifully.