Piggy Celebration (Vegan Mocha Fudge) Cake!

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit. Set aside.

Sift flour, cornstarch and cocoa together in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine sugar, vanilla and orange juice (or water) until smooth. Add the oil and salt and mix to combine. Gently incorporate the flour mixture into the mix, but do not overwork the batter.
Finish by mixing in the baking soda, then vinegar.

Divide batter between the two cake pans and transfer to warm oven. Bake for roughly 30 minutes, until you can smell the cakes and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Remove from oven and set pans on a rack. Wait 10 minutes before flipping them out of the pans onto a rack to finish cooling.

For the frosting:
Toss all of the frosting ingredients into a food processor and blitz until smooth.

For the assembly:
Cut several strips of parchment paper and arrange along the edges of a cake plate. Slice the cakes in half horizontally so that you have 4 layers. Place the bottom layer onto the plate, cover with a bit of frosting, top with another layer, apply frosting and continue until all 4 layers are stacked on top of one-another with frosting in between. Frost the sides and prop pirouline cookies around the outside of the cake.

Tie a pretty ribbon around the cake to keep the piroulines in place. Decorate the top with a toy piggy and off you go!

Note: Orange complements chocolate oh-so-well, but you can omit the juice and zest if it’s not your thing.