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.

Chocolate-backed coconut macaroons

May 9, 2021

   

I've had this recipe physically filed away for years. It's written on a cute piece of stationery by my mate Tamsin; she'd baked these biscuits, I'd loved them, and she made time to scribble down the recipe for me before moving away from Melbourne.

It's a recipe I would have scrolled right past if I encountered it online, because: tofu. I'm a long-time fan of savoury tofu dishes, and I know that it can hide away well in some sweet ones. Very occasionally it's even a dessert's feature, but I did not like the idea of a soy-milk-scented macaroon. I think the almond extract works with the coconut here to mask it.

With that tofu binder secretly tucked away, there's a lot to like! The biscuit dough takes just one bowl, and doesn't require an electric beater. The biscuits are chewy inside and toasty-gold around the edges, with just enough chocolate to form a dark-cocoa contrast. They're not gluten-free, but I'm optimistic that some commercial gluten-free flour or almond meal would work. And for me, they're all the sweeter for reminding me of Tamsin each time I eat them.

Chocolate-backed coconut macaroons

(a recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, 

which she has since published on her website)

85g silken tofu

1/3 cup neutral-flavoured oil

2 tablespoons non-dairy milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plain flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

3/4 cup chocolate

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Line some baking trays with paper.

Place the tofu, oil and milk in a food processor and churn them up until smooth. Pour it all into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar, almond extract and vanilla extract. Sift over the flour, baking powder and salt, and mix well. Stir in the coconut. Drop generous tablespoons of the mixture onto the baking sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the bottoms of the macaroons are lightly browned and their tops have golden tips. Allow them to cool.

Gently melt the chocolate using your preferred method. Dunk the flat bottoms of the macaroons in the chocolate and put them back on the trays, chocolate side up this time, until the chocolate has hardened. You'll probably need to get a teaspoon into the chocolate and spread it around as your supply dwindles. Store the biscuits in the fridge.

Goddess noodles with tempeh & broccoli

May 9, 2021

   

We wanted a new lazy weeknight meal to add to our rotation and after a quick browse of Isa Does It, this jumped out as an ideal option. Isa promised it was almost *too* easy to include in her book and it combines a bunch of flavours we love (tempeh! broccoli! tahini! nooch!). 

Isa was right that it's super easy - cook the pasta, fry a couple of things and mix together a sauce - you're done! It's a pretty basic dinner - I think we'd crank up the tahini and nooch next time to try to give it a bit more oomph. We also underestimated our broccoli, it would definitely work better with the full 6 cups in there. I stirred some chilli through the leftovers and that was an excellent idea too. While we figure it out, we can always go back to our old faithful tempeh and broccolini pasta option.

Goddess noodles with tempeh & broccoli

(from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Isa Does It)

250g dried linguine

1/2 cup tahini

1/2 cup warm water

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

3 tablespoons olive oil

250g tempeh

6 cups broccoli florets

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup fresh chives, chopped small

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions, drain and set aside, putting aside a cup of the pasta water.

In a small bowl, mix together tahini, warm water, lemon juice and salt. You want it to be pretty smooth, so add some water if needed. Stir in the nutritional yeast and set aside.

Heat a frying pan up and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Fry the tempeh with a shake of salt, stirring frequently. You want it to brown up nicely - about 7-10 minutes. Take the tempeh out and set aside.

Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and fry the broccoli for about 5 minutes. You want it to keep some crispness, so don't overcook it!

Make some space in the pan and add the rest of the oil and the minced garlic. Let it cook for about 15 seconds and then stir it together with the garlic. 

Stir the pasta into the pan, kill the heat and add the tahini mix, stirring to coat. Pour in as much of the reserved pasta water as you need to get the sauce consistency right. 

Stir in the tempeh, chives and a few twists of black pepper and serve.

Gingerbread waffles

January 11, 2020

We took a break for a week in January, and spent much of it renting a huge house in the country with a bunch of friends. We watched movies, did jigsaws, read books, and (of course) shared meals. I volunteered to make waffles for breakfast one morning and thought wistfully of some gingerbread ones I had years ago at a cafe. I started researching recipes online, thinking that I'd splice them with a Vegan Brunch recipe for something to suit our group's dietary requirements.

I should have started with Vegan Brunch, because it turns out there's a gingerbread waffle recipe sitting right there for the making! (Now that I'm blogging it's clear I should have checked here even earlier, because apparently I've made this recipe before! This blog so often now outperforms my own memory.) 

These waffles are really nice without quite being a knock-out. They're crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, maybe a touch spongy when I'm looking for cakey. For all their molasses, fresh ginger and spices, their flavour isn't as strong or as complex as I was looking for - I'd happily increase and further diversify those flavourings. The waffles are excellent vessels for berries and coconut yoghurt. I was delighted to watch one tablemate meticulously place one blueberry in each waffle indentation, then carefully douse the lot in maple syrup.

Gingerbread waffles
(a recipe from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz;
this quantity of batter made 8 waffles)

2 cups almond or other vegan milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons grated ginger
2 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
oil spray

Preheat your waffle iron.

In a mixing bowl, thoroughly whisk together the milk, vinegar, oil, molasses, brown sugar, and vanilla. Stir in the grated ginger. Sift in the remaining ingredients (except for the spray oil!), and stir well until smooth.

When the waffle iron is ready, spray it thoroughly with oil, and pour in the waffle batter in batches, cooking as directed by the appliance manufacturer.

Banana & molasses cake

August 26, 2017

I have nothing new to share with you here. You already know that over-ripe bananas are perfect for banana bread/cake. And you already have at least one great recipe for that (I've got about six such posts on the blog, myself). And what's more, I bookmarked this one from a blog in 2008.

But, but, but. This cake includes molasses, and that changes everything. In the raw batter it's too dominant, too minerally; in the baked cake it's mellow and malty. The bananas aren't as distinct as they are in other banana cakes, they're just supporting the overarching sweetness agenda and ensuring a dense, moist crumb no matter how volcanic and crusty the cake's surface becomes.

I stirred dark chocolate chips and walnuts into my banana and molasses cake, and cut thick slabs of it for afternoon tea over the course of a week. (It wasn't robust enough to sustain slices less than about 15mm thick.) I like that walnuts are a bit softer and woodier than most other nuts, melding a little into the cake and lending only a subtle texture contrast.

Banana & molasses cake
(slightly adapted from Yeah That "Vegan" Shit,
where it's credited to Veganomicon)

spray oil
3 small very ripe bananas, peeled
1/4 cup apple puree
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
2 cups plain flour
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup choc chips
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

Heat an oven to 180°C. Line a loaf pan with paper and lightly spray it with oil.

In a large bowl, thoroughly mash the bananas until as smooth as possible. Stir in the apple puree, oil, sugar and molasses, whisking to combine. Sift in the flour, bicarb soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake it for about 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (it's OK if the batter still feels a bit damp!). Allow the loaf to cool a while before slicing and serving.

Barbecued peaches with ginger-coconut sauce

January 22, 2017

We've been having a fabulous summer of picnics... of dips and chips, and rolls and salads, noodles and cakes and fruit. (And we can always trust Steph to bring one-to-three flavours of iced tea). For this one in late January I did something new and got a public barbecue involved. It opened us up to veggie sausages, marinated tofu, 'pulled' jackfruit and seitan ribs. The fellows flipping meat on the adjacent grill hadn't seen anything like it in their lives.

This simple dessert is handy with a hotplate, too. It's just peaches, barbecued until they're juicy and lightly charred, served with a spoonful of sauce. It's too bad the sauce looks like Clag glue, because it's an actually-rather-fetching mix of coconut milk, minced ginger and caramelised sugar. Once I'd persuaded two people to dig in, their enthusiastic murmurs lured in a few more, and so on. By the time I got back from the playground with the kids there was just one warm peach half left and two or three people eyeing it off.

This recipe comes with a handy tip from its creator, Isa Chandra Moskowitz - peaches are most easily halved 'around the waist', not top to bottom! The pits often pop out with little more than a twist, too.

The original recipe features elegant home-kitchen grill lines on the fruit, some discreetly-hidden served-warm sauce, and a generous scoop of non-dairy icecream. I'd like that version very much, too, but Tupperware-stored sauce is enough when you're several kilometres from your freezer and already stuffed with potato salad.

Barbecued peaches with ginger-coconut sauce
(a recipe published online by Isa Chandra Moskowitz)

3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon cornflour
165mL can coconut milk
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
a few shakes of salt
6-8 peaches
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons canola oil

In a medium-large saucepan, stir together the sugar, 3 tablespoons of the water and maple syrup. Set them over medium heat and stir regularly until the sugar is dissolved. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. A bit of bubbling around the edges is fine, but turn down the heat if it's any more than that. The mixture should turn a few shades browner.

In a mug, whisk together the cornflour and last tablespoon of water. When it's smooth, gradually whisk in the coconut milk. Slowly whisk the cornflour-coconut milk into the saucepan. Stir in the coconut oil, ginger and salt. Continue cooking and regularly stirring the sauce for up to 7 minutes, until slightly thickened. Serve warm, or cool to room temperature and store until you're ready.

Halve the peaches by slicing them 'around the waist', not top to bottom. Twist and/or cut out their pits. Place the peach halves in a large bowl; toss through the lemon juice and oil.

Heat up a barbecue or grill pan and cook the peaches - about 7 minutes on their flat sides, followed by 2 on their round side. They should be more tender but still holding their shape, with a light surface char. Serve with the sauce poured over or on the side.

Green bean casserole

November 26, 2016

We had the pleasure of joining in on our American friend's Thanksgiving tradition again this year. Our contributions to the table were an unconscious echo of the green bean salad and pie we prepared previously. First, I chose Isa Chandra Moskowitz's new veganisation of the traditional green bean casserole.

To this uninitiated Aussie, it's far preferable to the traditional concoction of canned green beans and cream of mushroom soup. Moskowitz has us make our own tasty gravy of blended cashews, vege stock and nooch. It thickens to bind sauteed green beans, mushrooms and onions. For me, the only misfortune is that the mushrooms infuse the casserole with a dull grey-brown colour that's not exactly appetising. With my host's approval, I sprinkled the top with Malaysian fried shallots - their golden hue helped spruce things up.

For dessert, Michael and I teamed up to make our favourite apple pie. For the one vegan guest in the gang, I tried my hand at apple roses. I took my cues from Green Gourmet Giraffe. The construction was a little easier than I'd feared, but as Johanna had hinted they're tough to cook evenly. The apple petals darken and the pastry outer crisps long before the centre is cooked. My tartlets were pretty but too chewy, and in need of more jam.

And so we pulled off flavour without looks in one dish, and looks without flavour in another. Perhaps next Thanksgiving we can refine these recipes and see them reach their full potential.

Green bean casserole
(slightly adapted from a recipe at Isa Chandra)

1 cup raw cashews
3 cups stock
1/2 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
500g green beans
2 small onions
4 cups mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon onion powder
1/4 cup fried shallots
salt & pepper

Place the cashews in a plastic container with a lid. Cover them with water and soak them for at least 2 hours, and ideally overnight.

Place the cashews in a blender with the stock, flour and yeast flakes. Blend them until they're completely smooth, adjusting the blend speed or switching it off periodically to scrape the sides, as needed.

Trim the beans and chop them into 4cm lengths. Slice the onions into loops. Slice the mushrooms into bite-sized flats. 

Heat the olive oil in a large frypan. Add the beans and onion, sauteing them until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue sauteing until they just start releasing water. Pour in the stock mixture from the blender, then sprinkle over salt and pepper. Cook until thickened, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Preheat oven to 190°C. Spray a large high-walled rectangular baking dish with oil. Pour the bean mixture into the dish and bake for 20-25 minutes, until it's browned and bubbly. Sprinkle over the fried shallots.