The. Ultimate. Chocolate. Cake.

Long time no blog...I have got a few recipes in the pipeline which I will post in due course.

First of all let me give credit to Isa Chandra Moskowitz and her legendary "Vegan With A Vengeance" which in our house is dog eared and smeared with chocolate and various other foodstuffs - sign of a good cookbook (or messy cook?)!!! This recipe is adapted from her super amazing Banana Split Pudding Brownie recipe in the above book.


Super Chocolately Cake


115g plain chocolate (I generally use 100g with good results as this is the weight of a standard chocolate bar)
2 medium sized bananas
5 tablespoons rapeseed oil
250ml sugar  (yes, ML)
1/3 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
180g flour
25g cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

Melt the chocolate by placing it in a bowl over simmering water. Stir until melted and take off the heat.

Combine bananas, oil, sugar and soy milk - I like to do this in a blender to get bananas really smooth, but if you want to do it in a large mixing bowl do pre mash the bananas. Blend/Stir in the melted chocolate and vanilla until everything is combined.

Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the banana mixture in batches, mixing as you go.

The mixture should not be too firm, but also not too runny, maybe a thick yoghurt consistency. Add more soy milk if mixture seems a bit stiff, although it will still taste amazing once baked if mixture is stiff, just a lot denser.

Pour into a greased and lined spring form baking tin. Bake for approximately 40minutes, but I would check on it at the 30 minute stage and insert a knife into the centre - if the knife comes out clean with no wet batter on in, then the cake is done.
Frost with chocolate ganache/buttercream icing.

Chilli option:  I have made this cake with 1 tsp of chilli powder and 1/2 tsp cinammon sifted with the dry ingredients. It is not spicy, it just lends a really nice warmth to the cake, almost making it seem more chocolatey.

Chocolate mousse with amaretto

I had a daydream about chocolate mousse. I made one before with silken tofu and melted chocolate which was yum, but really heavy, and wanted to see if I could make it lighter and hey presto.

It wasn't a plan to put it up on the blog, but it was soo yum that I had to, so the photo isn't "styled" at all and doesn't really do justice to the accidental gorgeousness of this chocolate mousse. (I will put the photo up tomorrow! right now I just want to post the recipe as promised yesterday!)

Chocolate mousse
Serves 4

175g extra firm silken tofu (- essentially half a packet)
1 300g packet of CremoVita Organic Soya based whipping cream (I bought it in the Free From aisle in Tesco)
100g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, then take off the heat.
Blend up the silken tofu until smoothish - then add the whipping cream.

(I did all this in the food processor as I haven't got an electric whisk, but I imagine pureeing the tofu then folding it into pre-whisked cream might give a fluffier consistency but this was still light.)

Add the sugar and blend until well mixed and air is incorporated, mixture should increase in volume.
Add the melted chocolate gradually, blending to incorporate fully. (I did this with the processor on, gradually pouring chocolate through the little funnel in the lid of the food processor).

Add the amaretto and give a final few pulses to incorporate.

Spoon mixture into serving containers and refrigerate for a few hours. Mixture will firm up.

Variations:

non alcoholic - add 1/2 tsp almond extract instead of amaretto, increase sugar by 1 tbsp, top with flaked almonds
alcoholic - instead of adding amaretto:
Black forest mousse - kirsch soaked cherries folded in before refrigerating
or - try rum soaked raisins folded in

Thought for next time: the cream at the top of a can of coconut milk has the same consistency as the vegan whipping cream, perhaps a choco-coconut mousse with coconut cream instead of the whipping cream, and some grated (vegan) coconut ice on top/desiccated coconut on top.

Hope it goes well for you too, I'd appreciate any feedback if you try this!

~ K