Vanilla Mocha Cake, August 5, 2009A latte in cake form.
Vanilla Cake:
(thanks to Hannah Kaminsky, My Sweet Vegan, Sponge Cake in "Green Tea Tiramisu")
1 cup plain soymilk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (I use Organic Spectrum)
2/3 cup granulated sugar (Trader Joe's Organic Evaporated Cane Juice is my sugar of choice)
2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I like white whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and lightly grease an 8 x 8 inch square baking pan.
In a small bowl, combine the soymilk and vinegar and set aside. Cream together the margarine and sugar in a large bowl. Add in the oil and vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Mix well or sift because baking powder clumps are not pleasant! Alternatively add the dry ingredients and the now curdled soymilk into the stand mixer, and mix just until everything comes together. Don't overmix, as this will overactivate the gluten and toughen your cake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 28 to 32 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely.
And while that cools, you can make the chocolate-coffee coating!
Rich Mocha Ganache
1/2 cup soymilk
1-2 teaspoons instant coffee
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
10 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (I use Trader Joe's brand - just check the label to make sure the kind you use are vegan)
Dissolve the instant coffee into the soymilk.
Heat the soymilk and shortening over medium-high heat on the stove until the shortening melts but before the soymilk boils (if a boil starts, turn down the heat). Take the saucepan off the stovetop and add the chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate chips are entirely melted and everything is a homogenous, smooth consistency. If you are like me and forgot to dissolve the instant coffee (well actually I decided to make the cake mocha after I made the ganache, but same difference), you can stir them into the mixture now. Let the ganache sit on the the counter for at least an hour - you won't be ready to use it until then anyhow!
Mocha Cake:
(thanks to family friend Marilyn, for this Depression-era recipe, "economical" due to its lack of milk, butter, and eggs!)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa (I tend to be scanty with the sugar and generous with the cocoa!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon vinegar
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup strong cold coffee (I three heaping teaspoons of instant coffee dissolved into 1 cup water)
Preheat oven to 350F (175 C). Flip vanilla cake out of 8 x 8 pan because you need it for this one, too.
Mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly. Add wet ingredients (except oil) and beat until smooth. Add oil last and mix again (but not too much - just enough to incorporate the oil). Pour into ungreased 8 x 8 pan (I'm shameless...I didn't even bother to wash it out from the vanilla cake, which came out exceptionally smoothly) and bake for 30 minutes or so. Let cool.
While the mocha cake is baking/cooling, you can make the coffee filler icing!
Coffee Buttercream
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons plain soymilk
1-2 teaspoons instant coffee
Dissolve instant coffee into soymilk.
Combine all the frosting ingredients and beat until fluffy.
Assemblage time!!!
After the cakes are completely cool (the vanilla one should be by now - waiting for the mocha cake to finish is a challenge!), slice them into two layers each (so in half horizontally) using an 8-inch serrated knife. You can get fancy with rulers and toothpicks and all that jazz, or you could just eyeball it (My impatience kicked in, so I just attacked with the knife).
Place one of the vanilla layers onto your cake plate. Scoop 1/3 of the coffee buttercream onto the layer and spread it with a knife to about 1/2-inch in from the edge (the weight of the next layer[s] will push the frosting the rest of the way). When the frosting is spread out nicely, add one of the mocha layers. Scoop 1/2 of the remaining frosting on top of this layer, once again leaving a 1/2-inch border. Top with another vanilla layer, then the rest of the coffee frosting, and then the last cake layer. Don't worry if it's not perfect - that's what the ganache is for!
So now you have a lovely strata-ed cake square. Take your mocha ganache and if you don't care about ending up with ganache on the plate and countertop, simply pour it onto the cake and spread with a knife. If you have a bit more foresight than I did, use a spoon and knife to carefully ice the cake with the ganache. If it's still really thin, you might want to consider refridgerating it for a little bit.
Viola! A shiny, mocha ganache covering four delicious layers of latte-as-cake!Here's that photo of the slice again...
Enjoy!
