Vegan Mocha Fudge Cake

My first vegan cake!

This cake was. . . delicious. The recipe came out of a cute little cake cookbook that my mother in-law gave me for Christmas called 500 Cakes. The original recipe is simply called Chocolate Fudge Cake, but I made it with the mocha fudge cake variation, one of five takes on the original. Both the cake and the frosting have instant coffee in it. And if you like chocolate and coffee as much as me then you should go make this right now. Jenni, are you drinking coffee yet? 'Cause ya should.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

(for the cake)

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
4 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup water
4 tbsp. vegetable oil (I used canola)
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar (apple cider vinegar would also be fine, or even lemon juice)

(for the frosting)

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp. boiling water
1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking soda, and cocoa into a bowl, then stir in the sugar and make a well in the middle. Pour the oil, vinegar, and water in to the well and stir together quickly. Immediately pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes until risen and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

To make the frosting, put the oil, cocoa, and boiling water in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir to combine, then gradually stir in the sugar and mix for about 2 minutes until thick and glossy. Add a drop more water if too thick. Pour the frosting over the cake and let it set for a few minutes before serving. [I just whisked it all together, didn't sift the confectioner's sugar or bother with the double boiler, and it was fine. . . ]

A few variations:

Chocolate & Orange Fudge Cake: Prepare the basic cake recipe, using orange juice instead of the water, and adding the finely grated zest of 1 orange with the oil and vinegar. [Note: If you make this you must invite me over to sample. Holy holy.]

Mocha Fudge Cake: Prepare the basic cake recipe, adding 1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water with the oil and vinegar. For the frosting, dissolve 1 tablespoon instant coffee in the boiling water before mixing with the sugar.

Chocolate Rum Cake: [I want this one too] Prepare the basic recipe, adding 1 tablespoon rum with the oil and vinegar. [Why stop at 1 tablespoon?]

Week 1 (Mel): Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This recipe came from my favorite chef, Ina. Now it's not every Monday evening that I decide to whip up a cake (though I SHOULD. . . wouldn't that make Mondays so much better???) but I had a special occasion coming up Tuesday morning. I was getting together with two old friends from high school -- one who I haven't seen SINCE high school and the other since our five-year reunion. So this was like our eleventh year reunion, which wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the magic of everyone's favorite, F*cebook. Well back to the cake, it's certainly not low-fat, but it IS indeed absolutely delicious! The only snafu I came across was not having a tube pan. I didn't think it would make a difference since I DID have a bundt pan. So after the cake was in the oven, I was thinking about it, and it dawned on me that the "top" of the cake (which was really going to be the bottom because of the design of the pan) is where I was suppose to sprinkle most of the streusel -- and I did. Except after it's cooled, you invert the cake of course when you take it out of the pan, and then drizzle the TOP with a galze. . . the TOP being ON top of the streusel. So now I had the streusel on the bottom and the glaze on the top. I decided to just go with it, slice it up, and not actually serve it as a whole cake but rather in pre-cut pieces to distract the eye. I think it worked.

But now I ask you, does this really mean I have to buy a tube pan or could I next time put the top layer of streusel on the bottom of the pan? Will that make it less crunchy since it will have cake batter on top of it while baking? What would you do?

Updatey

1) Cardamom in my coffee is where it's at, hot or cold. I loooooooooove the flavor!

2) Something else I tried recently is cold-brewed coffee. Have you ever tried this? You've got to, especially if you're interested in making your own iced coffee. Even if you don't like iced coffee, you can still use the cold-brew method. You can look for the article in the NYTimes that was published last year, but the premise is to brew the coffee overnight, or 12 hours, in cold water, at double the strength. I love the coffee brewed this way, it just has a different taste than the traditional hot water method; and again, I tried it with the cardamom and the flavor is even more pronounced (but still subtle, if you can believe it). I LOVE IT. It's not Morocco, but it'll do for now.

3) I made a curried spinach and pea soup with the pound of peas that was dying a slow death in my freezer. I love me a good curry, but this soup was disappointingly disgusting for too many reasons to list here. It's not really soup season anyway, but that doesn't matter; I wouldn't have liked this soup in the dead of winter, either. I will not be buying peas again in the foreseeable future.

The devil's in the details, apparently, and not in my coffee.

This morning I smashed open a bunch of cardamom pods and then pried them open so I could grind the seeds with my mortar and pestle. The problem with having a marble mortar and pestle is that I need to add a bit of salt for friction. If I don't, the seeds stay whole and it's harder to break them down. I don't know if that's just my lack of physical prowess or if it's the fault of the material. Anyway, I didn't think twice about adding the salt to the cardamom because I've been mainly using it when roasting eggplant. But then -- THEN!!! -- as I was transfering the ground cardamom into a jar (oh my gosh, it smelled SO GOOD), I said, "Shit, I can't believe I did that again!" See, I've been wanting to add cardamom to my coffee for the longest time. I figure if I can't afford the trip to Morocco, I'll bring Morocco to me. Foiled again! So my solution will be to brew the coffee with whole pods, rather than sprinkling some of the ground seeds into the cup post-brew. To be continued.