Spiced chocolate cake

September 3-4, 2024

   

I prefer collaboration over competition every time. There's a baking event within my work environment each year, and my local team choose to work on a project together rather than individually submitting entries. It's symptomatic of why I like working here so much! This year fourteen of us prepared cake with various shades of icing and sliced them into squares to form a pixelated image. I was lucky to be assigned 'almost black' - easily achieved with a dark chocolate ganache and a touch of black food colouring.

I volunteered to make something vegan, and turned to the classic Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World to try a new cake. I was tempted by the peanut butter cake and the chai-spiced cake but ultimately went for the Mexican Hot Chocolate cake, which looked like a crowd-pleaser. It aims for a slightly grainy texture and complex flavour with coconut milk, flax seeds, almond meal, cinnamon, cayenne, vanilla and almond essence all in the mix. The recipe is designed to make a dozen cupcakes sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon and cocoa but a square cake with a ganache topping better suited my purpose.

This cake achieves that excellent complexity but - I chuckled to myself as I ate a small leftover piece last night - more than anything it evokes the softness of a Coles chocolate mud cake. It's the flavour of cinnamon and cayenne that set this cake apart.

   

Spiced chocolate cake

(slightly adapted from a recipe in Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero's

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World)

cake batter

1 cup coconut milk

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

3/4 cup plain flour

2 tablespoons cornflour

1/4 cup almond meal

1/2 cup cocoa 

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

generous pinch of cayenne pepper

1 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon almond essence

chocolate ganache

4 tablespoons coconut milk

75g dark chocolate chips

3 tablespoons golden or maple syrup

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Line a 22cm square cake tin with paper, or line a muffin tray with cupcake papers.

In a large bowl, whisk together the coconut milk and flax seeds. Allow them to sit for 10 minutes so that the seeds thicken the milk.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cornflour, almond meal, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb soda, salt, cinnamon and cayenne.

When the coconut milk-seed mixture is ready, whisk in the sugar, oil, vanilla and almond essence. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix well. Pour the cake batter into the baking tin(s) and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cake passes the skewer test. Allow the cake to cool before applying the ganache.

When the cake has cooled, make the ganache. Place the coconut milk in a small saucepan and heat until almost boiling. Turn off the heat and add the chocolate, stirring until the chocolate is entirely melted. Whisk in the syrup. The ganache might look quite runny; if that's the case you can let it sit a while to thicken slightly. Gently pour the ganache over the cake(s) and allow it to set a while (although it will still be soft) before serving.

Rum'n'raisin cocoa cake

June 7, 2015

Michael's birthday was barely half elapsed before he got on his plane to Munich, so we agreed that I'd have a celebratory cake ready for him when he returned home. Michael had picked out the rum'n'raisin recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and I offered to pump it up with a bit of cocoa.

Instead of forming a dozen cupcakes, I poured the batter into a single round cake tin and baked it a little longer. It makes for a damp cake with a fluffy crumb and deep flavour - it has the dark caramel sweetness and only a little of the sharp booziness of dark rum. While I'm not especially fond of dried fruits in cake, the rum-soaked raisins dotted through this one are happy bursts of tripled sweetness.

A soaked-in glaze and slathering of buttercream layer but don't belabour the rum flavouring; I also added a ring of dark chocolate chips to the top to extend the cocoa theme.

We ate this cake with cups of vanilla-scented black tea, and everyone went back for seconds.

Rum'n'raisin cocoa cake
(adapted from a recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World,
by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero)

cake
2/3 cup raisins, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons dark rum
spray oil
1/4 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 tablespoon barley malt syrup or molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornflour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground mace or ground nutmeg

glaze
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum
1 1/2 tablespoons castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon margarine

buttercream
1/4 cup margarine
1 tablespoon dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon barley malt syrup or molasses
1 tablespoon soy milk
1 cup icing sugar

dark chocolate chips, to decorate

Place the raisins in a small bowl and pour over 2 tablespoons of the rum. Allow them to soak up the alcohol for at least 30 minutes and preferably an hour or two.

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Line a springform cake tin with baking paper and lightly spray it with oil.

In a medium bowl, stir together the soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Allow them to curdle for a couple of minutes. Whisk in the oil, sugar, syrup, remaining tablespoon of rum and vanilla until everything is well combined.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, cornflour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and mace. Pour in the whisked liquid ingredients and stir thoroughly until well combined and smooth. Fold in the rum-soaked raisins. Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and bake until the cake passes the skewer test, about 35 minutes.

While the cake is still warm, prepare the rum glaze. Stir the rum and sugar together in a small saucepan and set them over low-medium heat, until the sugar is dissolved and they've been bubbling about a minute. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the margarine, stirring until it is melted. Whisk in the vanilla. Use a skewer to poke holes in the top of the cake and spoon over the glaze. Allow the cake to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, place the margarine, rum, vanilla, syrup and soy milk in a medium bowl. Beat them until they're well mixed (I struggled). Sift in half the icing sugar and beat it thoroughly into the margarine mixture. Repeat with the remaining icing sugar, and continue beating for several minutes, until the buttercream is light and fluffy. Spread the buttercream over the cooled cake and decorate the top with chocolate chips.

Linzer cupcakes

November 26, 2011

Since I was lucky to see lots of friends on Saturday, I baked lots of cupcakes! This second recipe is a slightly more faithful rendition of a Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World recipe: the Linzer cupcake is a recommended adaptation on the hazelnut cupcakes.

They're a little bit fancy without requiring cut-outs or piping or even buttercream. Well, technically the raspberry jam is supposed to be piped into the centre of the hazelnut cake, but I found that slathering a bit on top was much easier, and the dark chocolate ganache glided across the top of the jam just fine. A few extra chopped hazelnuts sprinkled over them add a bit of crunch and hide any bumps.

These were a lovely break from the chocolatechocolateCHOCOLATE rut I can get into with desserts. Admittedly the cupcakes do involve ganache, but it's the moist hazelnut cake and sweet raspberry jam that are the real charmers here.


Linzer cupcakes
(adapted slightly from a recipe in
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World
by Isa Chandra Moskovitz & Terry Hope Romero)

cake
2/3 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon Frangelico

toppings
1/2 cup raspberry jam
4 tablespoons almond milk
75g dark chocolate
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup roughly chopped hazelnuts

Preheat an oven to 180 C and line a muffin pan with cupcake papers.

In a small-medium bowl, whisk together the milk and flaxseeds. In a medium-large bowl, stir together the flour, ground hazelnuts, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

Return to the smaller bowl and whisk in the oil, maple syrup, sugar, vanilla and Frangelico. Gradually pour these wet ingredients into the bowl of flour, stirring as you go and continuing until mostly smooth.

Pour the batter into the cupcake papers, about two-thirds full, and bake for about 20 minutes, until they pass the skewer test.

You can top them with jam while they're still warm! Use a teaspoon and make sure the jam is a bit stirred up and loose, not set like jelly. Spread about 2 teaspoons of jam on top of each cupcake, smoothing it as best you can with the back of a spoon.

Set the cupcakes aside to cool as you make the ganache. Bring the milk to the boil in a small-medium saucepan and then take it off the heat. Stir in the chocolate and maple syrup immediately, until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.

Spoon the ganache onto each cupcake, using the back of a spoon to spread it out. Sprinkle hazelnuts over the cupcakes while the ganache is still warm.

Cherry Ripe cupcakes

November 28, 2011

We spent much of last Saturday hanging out with friends, in our home and in others'. To ensure we had something to nibble at with those cups of tea and glasses of wine, I was inspired to bake for the first time in a while. These cupcakes sprang almost entirely from pantry supplies - just the almond milk was bought specially - and from a couple of the basic recipes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. 

With two kinds of cherries cluttering the cupboard I went for a Cherry Ripe kinda vibe, folding dried cherries into the chocolate cake batter, supplementing the flour with shredded coconut and popping a glace cherry on top of each ganache-spread cupcake. The ganache is so easy to make (no double boiler for the chocolate!) and so easy to spread thickly and smoothly. (I've used and raved about it once before; it really is something.) I also made a straight-forward switcheroo between wheat and gluten-free flour.

These were very nice indeed! I erred just on the side of under-baking them to keep them moist, and for a gluten-free recipe they had plenty of springy-ness. I only wish I'd had dessicated rather than shredded coconut on hand. The coconut was strangely crunchy, and I've found that a finer grind tends to meld into the batter better.

Cherry ripe cupcakes
(adapted from the basic chocolate cupcake and chocolate ganache
in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World
by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero)

cake
1 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sunflower oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup gluten free plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup dried cherries

chocolate ganache
4 tablespoons almond milk
75g dark chocolate
3 tablespoons maple syrup

~12 glace cherries, to garnish

Preheat oven to 180 C. Line muffin pan with cupcake papers.

In a large bowl, whisk together the milk and vinegar, then give them a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil and vanilla, beating until frothy.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, soda, baking powder and salt; stir through the coconut. Gradually add these dry ingredients to the milk mixture, beating as you go. Fold in the dried cherries.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake liners and bake for 15-20 minutes, until they pass the skewer test. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely.

To make the ganache, bring the milk to the boil in a small-medium saucepan and then take it off the heat. Stir in the chocolate and maple syrup immediately, until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.

Spoon the ganache onto each cupcake, using the back of a spoon to spread it out. Pop a glace cherry onto the middle of each cupcake to garnish.

Mocha cupcakes

October 6, 2011

After dinner at Purple Peanuts, I'd kinda been hoping to visit Cupcake Central for dessert. Alas, they were closed by the time we were ready to stop by. Even after arriving home I couldn't get cupcakes out of my head and so flicked through my copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Turns out I had the pantry supplies to make plenty of these recipes! I decided to try out something similar to the suggested mocha variation on their basic chocolate cake recipe - Michael's a coffee lover, and even had the cold dregs of his habit sitting in the coffee plunger for me to use.

Halving the batter quantity and quartering the buttercream, I turned out 5 cupcakes and a little too much icing. There just wasn't as much coffee flavour going on as I'd hoped so after the cakes were cooked, I poked holes in them with a skewer and poured in a few extra teaspoons of cool espresso. Michael's coffee grounds were quite fine so I sprinkled some over the top as a garnish too. There still wasn't quite the bitter edge I was after but I've learned something for next time - I won't be shy about dumping a couple tablespoons of the ground stuff directly into the batter, as they're unlikely to be gritty.

Something I've been slower to learn is that these icings are just too sugary for me. Reducing the whole quantity is not enough; I've got to cut down the proportion of sugar within the recipe. The cakes, though, are terrific - so fluffy and moist. And I felt pretty clever whipping these up on a weeknight whim.

Mocha cupcakes
(adapted slightly from recipes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero)

cake
1/4 cup soy milk
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup cold espresso
3/8 cup castor sugar
1/6 cup sunflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup plain flour
1/6 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

1-2 tablespoons cold espresso, extra

icing
1/4 cup margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1-2 tablespoons cold espresso
1 cup icing sugar

choc chips and ground coffee to garnish

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a cupcake tray with 5-6 paper liners.

In a small bowl mix together the soy milk and apple cider vinegar, allowing them a couple of minutes to sit and curdle. Stir in the cold coffee, sugar, oil and vanilla under well mixed.

In a separate small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, and salt. Gradually beat them into the liquid mixture, getting rid of as many lumps as you can. Pour the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them three-quarters full. 

Bake the cupcakes until they pass the skewer test, about 18-20 minutes. When they're ready, keep poking multiple holes in the top of each cupcake and spoon over a couple tablespoons of cold espresso. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

In a small bowl, beat together the margarine, vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the cold coffee. Gradually beat in the icing sugar, adding more coffee if it becomes too thick. Spread the icing thickly on the cupcakes, then sprinkle them with chocolate chips and ground coffee.

January 9, 2011: Coconut lime cupcakes

Recently my dear and distant friend Katy gave me Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.  This proves her to be both generous and clever - the cookbook is by Post Punk Kitchen's Isa Chandra Mockowitz and Terry Hope Romero, authors of other such favourites as Viva Vegan, Vegan Brunch and Veganomicon.  (This gift idea was no doubt sparked by the delightful baking day we had last time Katy travelled south to visit me.)

I was so excited to receive it in the post that I seriously considered making something that very night, which was a terrible idea (I had other foods and chores to attend to).  But I made a point of trying it out the very next weekend, choosing the coconut lime cupcakes both because they looked wonderful and because I had limes and shredded coconut to use up.  I did a fair bit of adapting to suit our situation:

• halving the cake recipe to avoid mega-gluttony
• reducing the icing quantity to a third - I just don't dig the towers of fluff used on the modern cupcake
• the limes were looking pretty sad, so no zest and no pretty lime slice garnishes
• no coconut extract
• all margarine, no shortening in the icing (BTW - can any Aussies recommend a vegan shortening? I've never used it)

This yielded five large-ish cupcakes that suited my preferences well.  While the cake batter started out  an unappetising grey, it baked up with a pleasing golden crust and dense crumb; the icing wasn't excessive and had plenty of tartness.

I'm not the kinda gal to go gaga over the miniature, the cutesy or the fussy, but this first foray into Vegan Cupcakes hints that I'll have no trouble enjoying such things on my own terms.

Coconut lime cupcakes
(adapted from a recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

cake
2 tablespoons coconut oil
3/8 cup raw sugar
2/3 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 tablespoons soy milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
generous pinch of salt
1/2 cup shredded coconut

icing
1/3 cup margarine
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice

coconut flakes, to garnish

Preheat an oven to 180°C and add some cupcake liners to a muffin pan (I used 5).

Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over low heat.  When it's completely liquid, transfer it to a mixing bowl.  Stir in the sugar, followed by the coconut milk, soy milk and vanilla.  Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, mixing everything until smooth.  Fold through the shredded coconut.

Spoon the cake batter into the cupcake liners and bake the cupcakes until golden on top and cooked through (you know the skewer test, right?), about 20 minutes.  Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before icing them.

To prepare the icing, beat together the margarine and icing sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and lime juice and beat a whole lot more - at least 5 minutes.  Spread the icing onto the cooled cupcakes and garnish them with the flaked coconut.