This Vegan Chocolate and Chestnut Cream Cake not only tastes great but is perfect when you cannot eat any dairy or eggs!
How would you feel if your birthday was during Lent and you could not have a Birthday Cake? Unfortunately this is something I had to face many times as apart from my birthday, my daughter’s birthday is a few days before mine and my son’s is exactly a month after mine, so in all three cases it happens that when the Easter is late in May or early in April, at least two of us have our birthday during Lent.
This is my entry for the Click Event, created by Bee and Jai, of Jugalbandi.
Unfortunately during all these years when the childrens’ birthday was during Lent I always bought them a cake of course , even if some of us would not eat any, but when it was during the last week of Easter then we would wait and celebrate on Easter day.
During this past year I have been experimenting a lot and made a lot of new recipes, so I hope others fasting or Vegans can now enjoy a real Birthday Cake.
The pseudo sponge cake was the easy part, so was the ganache and the caramelized walnuts. Actually about the walnuts this was not exactly what I intended to do but I realized that later that when putting the caramel on the parchment paper I should have turned all the walnuts so that the rounded side should be facing up. The difficult part was to make the filling.
I was debating whether to use gelatine or corn starch. Gelatine is not considered vegan although in Greek fasting for some strange reason we do eat jelly. I decided to go with the corn starch. My first idea was to make the cream as I did with water, less sugar and to mix in the rose cordial I’ve used in Mahalebi. I think that would have made a nice filling as well but as I wanted to use some chestnuts I had bought, I already boiled them, this time only in water and I wanted to use them and I rejected the idea to mix both of them together. When I pureed the chestnuts, they had a terrific taste but were a bit sour so to balance this I made the cream much sweeter than I would do that usually
Verdict: Just perfect. The cream was still a bit sour, but this combination with the chocolate is so good and the crunchy caramel on top makes it irresistible.
Vegan Chocolate and Chestnut Cake – Recipe by Ivy
Preparation time: 1 hour – 30 minutes
Baking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 12
Ingredients: |
||
For the cake: | ||
3 |
Cups |
Self rising flour |
6 |
Tbsps |
Cocoa |
1 ½ |
Cups |
Sugar |
1 |
Tbsp |
Orange zest |
¼ |
Tsp |
salt |
1 |
Tsp |
Baking soda |
1 |
Tsp |
Baking powder |
1 |
Tsp |
Vanilla essence |
10 |
Tbsp |
Sunflower oil |
2 |
Tbsp |
Cider vinegar |
1 |
Cup |
Orange juice |
½ |
Cup |
Water |
For the chestnuts: | ||
500 |
Grams |
Boiled chestnuts |
½ |
Cup |
Pomegranate molasses |
½ |
Cup |
Raspberry syrup |
For the caramel: | ||
14 |
halves |
Walnuts |
4 |
Tbsp |
Sugar |
1 |
Tbsp |
Water |
1 |
Tbsp |
Lemon juice |
For the cream: | ||
1 |
Cup |
water |
3 |
Tbsp |
Corn flour |
5 |
Tbsp |
sugar |
1 |
Tsp |
Vanilla essence |
For the ganache: | ||
1 |
Bar |
125 grams couverture chocolate |
1 |
Tbsp |
Margarine |
2 |
Tbsp |
Pomegranate molasses |
For decoration: | ||
½ |
bar |
60 grams couverture shavings |
Directions For the Cake |
|
1. |
Preheat oven a 180 degrees C. |
2. |
Put the fluids (oil, vinegar, orange juice, water and vanilla essence) in a bowl and mix. |
3. |
In another bowl put the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and orange rind. |
4. |
Mix the flour mixture and start adding the fluid and mixing until the batter is ready. |
5. |
Line a 26 cm spring form tin with parchment paper and brush with oil. |
6. |
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 45 minutes. |
Directions For the Chestnuts |
|
1. |
Add chestnuts and syrups and bring to a boil |
2. |
Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. |
3. |
Puree the mixture with a fork and set aside. |
Directions For the Caramel |
|
1. |
In a non stick frying pan add the sugar, lemon and water and mix with a spatula. |
2. |
When the mixture starts changing colour to a light caramel, add the walnuts and stir until the mixture turns darker. |
3. |
Remove caramel on a parchment paper and set aside and allow cooling before cutting. |
4. |
Try and cut the caramel and separate from the walnuts. |
5. |
Cut into smaller piece by folding the parchment paper and pounding with a heavy object. |
Directions For the Cream |
|
1. |
In a saucepan combine the water, sugar, corn flour and vanilla and keep mixing until the cream sets. |
2. |
Mix in the pureed chestnuts and mix with a hand mixer to make the cream fluffy. |
Putting the cake together |
|
1. |
Allow the cake to cool and reverse cake in a platter. |
2. |
With a sharp knife separate it into two pieces. |
3. |
Remove the top part and place again the spring form. |
4. |
Add the cream while it is still hot, add the other cake on top and set aside to cool. |
Directions For the Ganache |
|
1. |
In a bain Marie put the chocolate and mix until it melts. |
2. |
Add the margarine and mix and then add the syrup. |
3. |
Pour on top of the cake, while the ganache is still hot. |
4. |
Allow to cool and decorate the cake with the chocolate shavings and the walnuts. |
I am sending this recipe to my Friend Poornima, of Taste Treats, who is hosting the event For the Love of Chocolate.
Other relevant recipes:
Vegan Chocolate Pomegranate Cupcakes
Vegan Lactose Free and Gluten Free Ryzogalo
Vegan Butternut Squash and Mandarin Cake
Kopiaste and Kali Orexi,
maryann
Thursday 2nd of April 2009
I would love a slice of this! :)
Bobby
Tuesday 31st of March 2009
Yumm!! Chocolate cake, you know I love it. Looks sooo good :)
Bellini Valli
Tuesday 31st of March 2009
This cake sounds amazing. Your family is lucky they have someone who is so creative.
Poornima
Monday 30th of March 2009
Very Happy Birthday to all of you...Thats a gorgeous cake, u've got to send this for my event too, I would love to have it. Have sent you a msg on bloggeraid.
giz
Monday 30th of March 2009
I'm amazed!!! What a gorgeous cake. I've never cooked anything with chestnuts before - never even knew how to prepare them. Many many happy returns.