Monday, December 11, 2006
Vegan Mocha Awsomeness
I love the idea of mocha cake. I rarely have it so the last two times I was asked to choose a birthday cake, I chose Mocha Cake. Coincidentally, they were both vegan and both winners. As such, I am developing very specific standards which will prevent burnout.
Someone: Mocha Cake?
Me: Is it vegan?
Someone: No(?)
Me: I'll wait until my birthday.
Vegan Mike made me a vegan mocha birthday cake with Caffy's help. It was based on this recipe from Martha Stewart and hats off to the lady, it was a really great cake that was straightforward to make. Rather than a layer cake with icing in between and ganache on top, we made it in a 9x13 and iced the top.
The recipe called for espresso powder for which we substituted coffee. I had never used espresso powder so I winged it on the proportions. The results were great but I will experiment sometime with more. Instead of 4 tablespoons espresso powder in 2 cups water, I brewed 2 cups of french press coffee using 4 tablespoons of ground dark roast coffee. Instead of espresso powder in the icing, I supplied the icing team with finely ground coffee. The coffee flavor came across as a subtle but rich finish which played so nicely with all the other flavors.
The vegan margarine used was from Earth Balance, tropical oils are back!
Someone: Mocha Cake?
Me: Is it vegan?
Someone: No(?)
Me: I'll wait until my birthday.
Vegan Mike made me a vegan mocha birthday cake with Caffy's help. It was based on this recipe from Martha Stewart and hats off to the lady, it was a really great cake that was straightforward to make. Rather than a layer cake with icing in between and ganache on top, we made it in a 9x13 and iced the top.
The recipe called for espresso powder for which we substituted coffee. I had never used espresso powder so I winged it on the proportions. The results were great but I will experiment sometime with more. Instead of 4 tablespoons espresso powder in 2 cups water, I brewed 2 cups of french press coffee using 4 tablespoons of ground dark roast coffee. Instead of espresso powder in the icing, I supplied the icing team with finely ground coffee. The coffee flavor came across as a subtle but rich finish which played so nicely with all the other flavors.
The vegan margarine used was from Earth Balance, tropical oils are back!
Labels: cake, coffee, earth balance, espresso powder, mocha, recipe, vegan
