Eggless chocolate mint cake

4 1/2 c flour
3c white sugar
1c cocoa
1c vegetable oil (I used Canola)
3c Water
3tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
3tbsp vanilla essence (I used mint essence, hence choc mint cake)

- Preheat oven to 185 deg C
- In a large bowl (and I mean LARGE! Not just a normal baking bowl, it goes all over the bench, I promise you!) sift flour, cocoa, soda and salt. Add sugar and combine.
- Add oil, water and vanilla and mix.
- Pour into a large, greased cake tin (I used a small cake tin and a loaf tin, unsure how much this is going to rise...) and bake for an hour.

Well this may be interesting. I used 2c normal sugar and 1c castor, because I ran out of sugar. I used canola oil because that's all we had. I used 2/3c cocoa and 1/3c of something chocolatey the flatmate had on her shelf. And lastly, I used mint essence because I simply didn't have enough vanilla.

So let's be honest. If this is edible, I will be very (but pleasantly) surprised!

Cross your fingers for me. Also, my bench and floor are filthy because I didn't have a big enough bowl, and my clean skirt is also covered in cocoa.

Update: I wish I had taken a photo, this cake looked beautiful with cream cheese icing. I made my flatmate do a taste test, and even though he will eat ANYTHING he really wasn't impressed. But then Tom had some and really enjoyed it, but it was EXTREMELY minty- he said you had to know it was mint chocolate before taking a bite. So the moral of today's story is, when substituting vanilla essence for mint essence, probably don't use 1:1 ratio.

Might make this again, but I think I preferred my mint cupcakes here.... http://bakeittoenjoyit.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/mint-chocolate-cupcakes-with-mint-cream.html

Flourless choc brownie cookies

3 cups icing sugar

2/3 cups cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large egg whites, room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 180deg C. Line baking sheets with baking paper.

- In a large bowl combine icing sugar, cocoa and salt. Add egg whites and vanilla and stir until just combined. Add choc chips

- Spoon small amounts onto baking paper and chill in fridge for 5mins for dough to harden a little.

- Bake for 10-12 mins until slightly cracked. Cool on wire rack.

Wow these are DELICIOUS. But you must remember to take them out when they first start cracking or they fall apart. I am literally scraping my first lot off the baking paper and eating with a spoon, can't waste them because it's so delicious!