Serves 10
Description
If you are just gluten free you can easily buy these chocolate cigarillos online. If you are dairy free as well then some stores have dark chocolate cigarillos that don’t contain milk but I couldn’t find any without a may contain warning so I made my own. Rather than trying to explain how I made them I thought it best to check out the options for how these are made in this handy guide: http://thechocolateaddict.com/blog/2013/09/24/how-to-make-an-oh-so-elegant-chocolate-cigarette/
Ingredients
For the chocolate sponge:
- 250g dairy free spread
- 250g caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 190g gluten free self raising flour
- 35g gluten and dairy free cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 30g ground rice
- 3 tablespoon dairy free milk
For the frosting:
- 225g icing sugar
- 25g cocoa powder
- 125g dairy free spread
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Others:
- mixture of dairy free chocolate sweets (I purchased a selection from https://www.veganstore.co.uk)
- 50g dairy free dark chocolate, melted
- 75 dairy free chocolate cigarillos (see note in description)
- 1 bendy straw
- 2 wooden skewers
- 1 small paper bag
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 oC
- Cream the dairy free spread and sugar together for a couple of minutes until light and fluffy
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
- Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder and ground rice and beat well to combine
- Add the milk and mix in
- Line two 8 inch round baking pans
- Divide the cake mixture between the two tins
- Smooth out the top of the cakes with a spatula
- Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes
- Remove the cakes from the oven and cake pans and allow to cool on a wire rack
- Make the frosting by beating together the dairy free spread, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and icing sugar
- Use some of the frosting to sandwich the cakes together
- Place on a cake board
- Cover the top and sides of the cake with the chocolate frosting
- Gently press the cigarillos into the side of the cake so they form a collar all the way round
- Allow to set in the fridge for an hour
- Push one of the skewers into the centre of the cake and thread the straw over the top of the skewer
- Use the melted chocolate to attach the smarties to the straw, stopping when you reach the bend in the straw
- Trim the remaining skewer so it is just a little longer than the paper bag you have
- Stick the skewer into the bend in the straw
- Balance the bag on the skewer so it looks like it is pouring out the smarties
- Decorate the top of the cake with the remaining dairy free chocolate sweets, I used a mixture of different treats