Vegan mocha cake and recipe by Talty on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

This

was my entry for Chopped: CV Edition and I had lots of fun working on it I tried to improve my presentation and food photography, and I think it looks better than all my previous attempts but I still have a lot of work to do. I didn't win the voting but it was a very fun exerience, and we are already planning a community version of Chopped... if there's enough interest Vegan mocha cake with raspberry, mocha frosting and ganache

This was a beautiful recipe, the flavors of raspberry, chocolate and coffee go great together. The cake was soft and moist, and it kept in the fridge for over a week. I really recommend it!

Vegan mocha cake This is the easiest cake recipe ever! Much easier than any non-vegan recipes I tried. If you prepare your coffee with enough anticipation, mixing the batter takes 10 minutes tops.

2 cups of wheat flour
2 tablespoons of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
3/4 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil (I used canola)
1 cup of non-diary milk, unsweetened (I chose almond)
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (beware of non-vegan vanilla extracts!)
50 g dutch process cocoa, unsweetened
1 tablespoon of white vinegar
1/2 cup of concentrated coffee

Preparation: I used a 25x10 cm (10x4 in) rectangular pan. Grease it with some cooking oil or margerine and dust it with cocoa. Pre-heat your oven at 200ºC (370ºF)

Begin by brewing a strong coffee, use any method you want. I used a french coffee press and brewed 3/4 cup of water with 4 tablespoons of freshly ground coffee beans. After brewing I was left with 1/2 cup of coffee, let it cool down at room temperature. Reserve 2 tablespoons for the mocha buttercream.

In a bowl sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add the salt and sugar, mix the dry ingredients together. In a different bowl whisk the oil, milk, vanilla and coffee.

DON'T ADD THE VINEGAR YET. It's very important to hold the vinegar until the very end.

Pour the wet ingredients in the same bowl as the dry ingredients, whisk them together until they're just blended. You should get a shiny and somewhat liquid batter.

When the oven reaches 200ºC (370ºF) pour the vinegar in the batter, whisk it briefly and fill the pan. Place it in the oven immediately. The vinegar is the magic ingredient that makes this cake fluffy, but you have to mix it until the last minute. BAKING SCIENCE!

Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. I used a small pan and a convection oven, so your cake may take slightly longer. Adjust the time accordingly.

This cake is very soft and delicate, so don't even think about removing it from the mold until it's completely cool. I'm serious, I tried, I cried. Freeze it to prepare it for the "butter"cream. While the cake is baking and cooling down, prepare the rest of the ingredients:

Vegan mocha frosting
This recipe is super easy to make, it's very soft and with a pleasent taste. A word of advice? Test your margerine ahead of time, I (very painfully) discovered that some brands are very hydrophobic and they will break apart when you mix them with even the slightest amount of liquid ingredients. Learn from my mistakes! Some brands will emulsify without much trouble, I promise.

220 g of non-diary margarine
50 g of vegetable shortening
70 g of powdered sugar
50 g of cocoa
2 tablespoons of concentrated coffee
Some non-diary milk for consistency.

Your margerine and shortening need to be at room temperature. Use an electric blender to whisk them until they're light and fluffy. Add the sugar and cocoa powder, mix carefully to avoid creating a mess. Add the coffee you reserved earlier, if needed add some non-diary milk until you get your preferred consistency. Put it aside until it's time to assamble the cake.

Raspberry coulis
100 g of fresh raspberries
Water
sugar

OK I FORGOT TO MEASURE THE INGREDIENTS SORRY. Place the rasperries in a small pan, add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan and probably 2 tablespoons of sugar. Heat at low temperature, mix every once in a while, the raspberries should break on their own but you can smush the stubborn ones with the back of your spoon. After 10-15 minutes you should have a pretty sauce, don't let it reduce too much you don't want to make a jelly. Taste and adjust your sugar. Sift to remove the seeds. Let it cool down.

Raspberry vegan frosting (optional)
This was my original plan but my margarine broke apart when I tried it and I didn't have the time or energy to go back to the grocery store. If your margarine doesn't break apart you can make raspberry frosting to the fill the cake and add a touch of color. Mix 90g of margarine, 20 g of shortening until they're fluffy, then add a couple of tablespoons of your coulis. Taste and adjust the amount of sugar and add more coulis as needed. You can also chop some raspberries and add them to the frosting.

Vegan chocolate ganache
100 g of dark chocolate
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin coconut oil

If you prefer a sweeter ganache you can use semi-sweet chocolate, but I love the bitter taste of chocolate. You can probably use margarine instead of coconut oil, I haven't tried it yet, but I think that coconut oil makes a very creamy ganache. In a double boiler melt your chocolate, then add the coconut oil. Mix until it's nice and smooth. Let it cool slightly, but not until it hardens down completely.

Assembly
Make sure your cake is frozen, cut it in the middle with a serrated knife and fill it with frosting. If you made raspberry frosting go ahead and use it, if you only made mocha frosting then add a layer of it and top with a thick layer of raspberry coulis. When you cut the cake it will almost bleed, it's gorgeous. Place the top layer of cake again and freeze it for 10 minutes to stabilize the frosting. Crumb coat your cake with a thin layer of mocha frosting, then freeze again for 10 minutes. Now frost the cake with the rest of your mocha buttercream, this frosting levels quite nicely so it should be easy to get a smooth layer. If you are working on a warm kitchen (like I did) you may want to place your frosting on the fridge every once in a while, just so it doesn't become too soft to handle. When you are happy with your frosting freeze it again for 10 minutes.

This would be a good time to check your ganache, you want it thin and pourable so heat it slightly if it became too solid. Pour your ganache over the cold cake and let it slide down the sides, it should harden quite quickly if your cake is cold. Before it hardens place some raspberries as decoration.

If you have a turn table or a cooking rack please use them, otherwise your serving plate will have poodles of chocolate like mine did. I scraped the ganache and ate it anyway.

To serve
Pick a pretty dish, add a layer of raspberry coulis all over. Cut a slice of the cake and place it on top. DELICIOUS. Please enjoy.