I have a confession to make: Most days, I would choose pie over cake. Ice cream over cake. Most things over cake. But this cake, my loves. This cake is different.
As I ventured a few recipes, I quickly found that her approach to vegan cooking was much the same as mine (yup, I was vegan for three years (!)). She didn’t fuss around with extra substitute ingredients. Her food wasn’t trying to be something it wasn’t. In the most exciting way, it was easy, hearty, delicious, and addictive. And man did I love her chocolate cake! I made it for almost every friend’s birthday, taking the liberty of throwing fresh raspberries into the batter and watching them bloom in the magic of the oven.
When Isa’s book Vegan With A Vengeance came out in 2005, I couldn’t get my hands on it fast enough. This year, its 10 year anniversary brings a second printing—with a version of her blackout chocolate cake that includes (OMGOMGOMG) raspberries! I couldn’t be a happier camper. Plus, Beyoncé just announced her veganism to all of America. #flawless
Did I mention that you should make this cake IMMEDIATELY because this week is also Berry Week over at Good Eggs, and you can get a basket of free berries delivered with your order? Free strawberries or blueberries await, location depending (and yes, you can modify this recipe to use one of those berries instead, if you like!).
Once you’ve got your free berries and your 10th anniversary edition of Vegan With A Vengeance, life is looking pretty sweet. And get this: You’re about to make a dazzlingly good VEGAN chocolate blackout cake. A cake that even cake naysayers adore.
The recipe below is just slightly adapted from the book, using fresh raspberries instead of jam, and a tad more chocolate (for obvious reasons).
Very slightly adapted from Vegan With A Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Reprinted with permission from Da Capo Lifelong, 2015.
VEGAN CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY GANACHE CAKE (FOR BEYONCÉ!).
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¾ cup Dutch cocoa powder
- 1 ½ cups unsweetened almond milk
- ½ cup safflower oil
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ½ cup raspberry mash from below
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh raspberries whole
makes enough for use in cake batter and in between cake layers
- 1 pound fresh raspberries
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Chocolate Ganache
- ¾ cup coconut milk
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
Garnish
- 2 tablespoons freeze-dried raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º. Oil and flour two cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.
- In a large bowl, mix oil, almond milk, sugar, ½ cup raspberry mash, and vanilla extract using an electric mixer on low. Mix until completely incorporated—a few raspberry clumps are fine.
- In a separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Gradually add these in to the wet, beating as you go, just until blended. Fold in 1 cup fresh raspberries.
- Pour into prepared pans, and bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool completely on a wire rack.
- While cooling, bring ¾ cup coconut milk to a low boil, then remove from heat. Stir in ¼ cup coconut oil and 10 ounces chocolate chips, whisking until completely smooth. Set aside and let cool in a bowl for at least an hour.
- Once cakes and ganache are cool, turn one cake over onto your cake plate or cake stand, and spread it with a thin layer of raspberry mash. Top this with a thin layer of ganache, spread evenly across the cake. Turn other cake out on top of the first layer, and spread with another thin layer of raspberry mash.
- Pour more ganache over the top and allow it to spread outwards and down the sides of the cake. Use an offset spatula to smooth as you go. You’ll have extra ganache left over that you can use however you like (let it chill in the fridge and then pipe a design onto the top with a frosting bag, dip raspberries or other fruit in it, throw it at the birthday girl or boy—the possibilities are endless!).
- Let your cake set in the fridge for at least an hour before slicing. To garnish, pulverize freeze-dried raspberries and sprinkle in any design you like atop your cake. They have an incredible potent, tart raspberry flavor.
