Dairy and Egg Free Chocolate Sponge and Chocolate custard

1.grease a 8in (20 cm) cake tin and line with greaseproof paper and preheat oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3. You could also choose to make individual puddings in which case just grease 6 - 8 ramekins or individual oven-proof pudding dishes.

2.Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl and beat until light and pale. Add the egg-alternative slowly and continue to beat for about 5 minutes with an electric mixer.

3.Sift the flour. Gently fold half the flour into the mixture and when it is well combined, fold in the other half of the flour along with the sieved cocoa powder and baking powder. Stir in the vanilla extract.

4.Turn the mixture into the prepared tin / individual ramekins.

5. If you are using a cake tin then bake for about 30 mins  or until a cake skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. For individual puddings you will  need to reduce this to about 20-25minutes but check regularly to avoid burning.

6.Remove from the oven and leave to cool before turning onto a wire rack.  You can cook these cakes a little bit before you need them and then reheat for about 10minutes in the oven before serving.

7. To make the custard, mix the custard powder, cocoa powder, sugar and milk according to the pack instructions. Add the cocoa powder when you add the custard powder - doing it later will leave lumps. You can also try melting real chocolate (try Organica dairy-free / soya-free chocolate) into the milk instead of the cocoa powder.

Serve it warm.