I’m going to share a quick chocolate cake recipe that I liked for its originality. It differs from other chocolate cakes both by the method with which it is made (the sugar goes in with the dry ingredients, and the butter is melted and mixed with the cocoa powder to make a paste) and because of the fact that it contains fruit juice. Pomegranate goes very well with chocolate, and it has the advantage of being full of antioxidants (dark chocolate has some, but pomegranate has more). I’m sure you could use another kind of juice if you wanted to, perhaps something like cherry or apple. The Engineer said this cake had just the right moistness! Note that I forgot to flour the pan after I had greased it, so I covered up the top of the cake with powdered sugar to help hide its flaws. That being said, since this is a chocolate cake, you should definitely use cocoa instead of flour in the pan, which will avoid white streaks on your cake.
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¾ cup margarine or butter
¾ cup cocoa powder
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups pure pomegranate juice (such as POM)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 "F. Grease a 12-cup bundt pan; coat it with cocoa powder and dust off the excess.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking soda and salt.
In a medium sized, microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Whisk cocoa powder into melted butter until smooth. Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes, so mixture is warm but not hot. Whisk in eggs and vanilla.
Add chocolate mixture, pomegranate juice and chocolate chips to the flour mixture and stir until batter is well combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain visible. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached. Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes, then turn cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
I mostly successfully veganized this by adding an extra tsp of baking soda and a tbsp of vinegar in place of the eggs. It was a little dry, so next time I will add 1/4 c of applesauce as well. It fell a little and despite cocoa-ing the pan, it still didn't come out of the pan properly, but I figure this is a bug of the recipe, not the veganization.
ReplyDeleteI just looked at the pictures on the blog where I got the recipe, and the top of the blogger's cake does look a little worse for wear, but you can still see the design of her bundt pan. I know that would not have been possible with my cake, but I think you're right, this won't come out of the pan perfectly even with cocoa.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found a way to replace the eggs! Applesauce sounds like a good idea, because I think the eggs were there not just for leavening but for moisture as well. Happy Rosh Hashanah to you guys! :)
I made this again this year and it came out perfectly. Not sure if it's my brand new Bundt pan or because I mixed it the way a cake *should* be mixed. It was still good almost a week later!
ReplyDeleteOh, good to know! I've been meaning to make that again.
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