Basic Cake Recipe - Dairy Free

This is our basic cake recipe.  My youngest child, Eddie, is dairy intolerant so of course it's a dairy free recipe.  I adapt it in many ways. It's an easy one to memorise and even easier to make.   I think its even easier than the Easy Chocolate Cake in the Everyday Cookbook as the melted butter is substituted for oil. I have cut back the sugar content of the recipe because really, who needs it?

The recipe is in cup measurements rather than grams because I find it easier to remember it that way ... and easier to multiply ... which I do almost every time I cook it  You can use the one measuring cup for the whole recipe so there is not too much washing up.

I cook it in various quantities, depending on what type of cake I am baking; loaf tin, cupcakes, round tin etc.  One quantity for a loaf tin, one and a half for a round tin or 12 cupcakes and so on. Here is the recipe and the very simple instructions. 

DAIRY FREE EASY BASIC CAKE
Ingredients
180g or 1 cup flour - either SR or plain flour plus heaped tsp of baking powder
80g or 1/2 cup sugar
125g or 1/2 cup milk - I use rice milk
80g or 1/3 cup oil - I use rice bran oil as that is the best oil for Eddie (he is also intolerant to salicylates)
2 eggs

Method
Walk in the kitchen, turn on the oven to 180', pour all the ingredients into the TM bowl.  Mix for 30 seconds speed 3-4.  Whilst this is mixing, prepare your cake tins however you do (I use Glad Bake or similar product)  Pour the batter into the tins and cook for around 40 mins (25 mins if baking cupcakes).

Now that all takes me less than five minutes. I can start this at 3:00 and its baked when the kids walk through the door at 3:45

Notes :
I use wholemeal spelt flour most of the time and brown or raw sugar because its better for us.
Make sure you don't overbeat (either time or speed) the mixture as you will end up with flatcakes.
Variations:
Chocolate - Add 2 tbsp cocoa
Apple - Quarter two or three apples and place a the bottom of the bowl with the other ingreds on top.  The apples chop whilst the cake mixes.  Don't forget some cinnamon.
Lemon - Peel a lemon and zest the peel with a tbsp of flour (and sugar if you are using raw sugar).  Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the mix. 1/2 a cup of coconut is also lovely in this combo.
Raspberry and Coconut -1/3 cup of shredded coconut and  a handful or two of berries stirred though with your spatula at the end.