Oh hey! I’ve emerged from my month-long absence from the blog. Leung has been keeping it alive these past two months or so with all her summer recipes, and I haven’t even had a chance to read through those posts yet! You guys might be ahead of the game for this one…
Today I’m sharing with y’all one of the best cakes I’ve ever made yet! It seems to me that my love for chocolate is passed on to me from my mom. When the two of us are in charge of dessert, you can bet that something chocolate will appear on the table. So naturally, I set out to make her a chocolate cake for her special day this year.
I don’t know how moms do it, but it seems like once anyone becomes a mother, they are suddenly blessed with a set of super powers to help juggle through the life of raising kids… like eternal patience, care, and love. I remember a funny story when I was learning to spell “Good morning” for a spelling test one night. I still remember the sentence to this day from the spelling book: Sally said to John, “Good morning!”.
The whole night was spent like this:
Mom: Ok spell good morning
Me: uhhh -spinning on the wheely chair-
Mom: It starts with a G
Me: uhh G……
Mom: Good morning
Me: G………………………….u….?
Mom: Gooooooooo-ood morning
Me: G-u-d….
Mom: -many sighs-
I spent the whole night trying to spell good morning with my mom; my mom still jokes to this day that she’s spent 4 hours of her life trying to teach me how to spell good morning. I don’t remember if I actually got it right on the spelling test or not… my mom would have been mourning (get it) if I hadn’t gotten it right after the 4 hours of nagging and saying “good morning” during nighttime lololol.
At one point she even said “ok last time. If you know it, you know it; if you don’t, you don’t”. This is also the philosophy that Leung has taught me to get through my courses in university. She always tells me to “accept that you don’t know it and move on”. I do now.
Well, I think now that I know how to spell “good morning”, this calls for a celebration. My whole family enjoyed this cake after an Italian meal of margarita pizzas, and the best part is that you can deck it out however you like! The cake is super moist and soft, but holds its shape very well once it is chilled. It’s a lot less daunting than it looks because these cakes require literally no technical skill. That’s the difference between Leung and I; I like to just throw things on food to make it look half decent, while Leung actually takes the time and artistically place things to make it look fabulous. I’d like to say my type of “decorating” is rustic, while hers is chic. So if we make a recipe together, you can probably tell who decorated which part of the dish.
- CAKE
- 2 c. unsweetened almond milk
- 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1¼ c. applesauce
- ⅔ c. coconut oil, melted
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2¼ c. unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 c. honey
- 1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- FROSTING
- 2 sticks vegan butter, softened
- 2½ c. powdered sugar
- 1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- ~1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- CHOCOLATE GANACHE
- ¾ c. semi sweet chocolate chips
- ½ c. coconut milk
- TO DECORATE
- Chocolate shards*
- Pretzels
- Coarse salt
- Sprinkles
- CAKE
- Preheat oven to 350°F (176 C) and line the bottom of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper. Lightly grease the sides of the pans and dust with cocoa powder.
- Whisk the almond milk and vinegar in a large mixing bowl, and let set for a few minutes to activate. Add the oil, vanilla extract, honey, and applesauce and beat until foamy.
- In another bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet mixture and whisk until no large lumps remain. It should be creamy and pourable.
- Divide batter evenly between your 2 cake pans, and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
- FROSTING
- While cooling, prepare frosting by beating together all ingredients until light and fluffy, adding the powdered sugar a bit at a time (to prevent from you transforming into Jack Frost). If it becomes too thick, add more almond milk. If it's too thin, add more cocoa powder or powdered sugar.
- GANACHE
- Heat the coconut milk on the stovetop until it just begins to boil. Pour the milk over the chocolate and let sit for 1-2 minutes. Whisk the chocolate and milk together until smooth.
- TO DECORATE
- Make sure your cake is thoroughly chilled before applying your frosting and ganache. Use a spoon to first add a few purposeful drips over the top edge of the cake. Next, pour more ganache on the top of the cake, pushing it just to the edge with a small offset spatula. Don't overthink it; just have fun with it!
- Stick in your chocolate shards to add some height, and decorate however you want your cake to look!
HOLY YUM! Salty and sweet chocolatey goodness right here! DROOLING over this masterpiece!
I turned this into a chocolate peanut butter cake. I used your recipe for the cake layers and the ganache. I used a different recipe to make a honey and peanut butter frosting. Wow, so good. The ganache was very glossy and my cake looked like something from a gourmet bakery. I love that it’s rich and tasty, but not super sweet.