Food Friday - Vegan Deep Chocolate Bundt Cake

from Kris B.

During my adult life I have gone through periods of eating a vegetarian diet, a vegan diet, and an everything diet.  I have come to the point now of just trying to eat a reasonably healthy diet.  For me, that means eating meat because I have had some issues with severe anemia as a result of having systemic lupus.  That said, some of my very favorite recipes are those that I discovered during my days of more restrictive eating.

I make this recipe from the cookbook Veganomicon The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, whenever I am asked to make a cake for a potluck or anything like that.  Never has anyone realized that it was vegan simply by its taste.  This cake is loaded with chocolate and coffee.  How can it not be delicious??

My oldest daughter, Brooke, proclaimed herself a vegetarian at age three.  I’m not kidding!  And, she knew exactly what she was saying and doing. With the exception of “flat meat” (pepperoni) that should would occasionally eat on pizza at parties during elementary school, she has led a life almost completely free of meat in her diet.  In high school, she became a vegan and also discovered her real passion for cooking. Not only did she have the culinary skills, but she also did the research to make sure that her diet was nutritionally sound.  During this time, she taught me a lot about cooking and introduced me to foods that I had never had and probably never would have tried on my own.  Brooke also did very well at converting standard recipes for baked goods to being vegan friendly.  It is ironic that she gave up her vegan diet when, after graduating from college, she went to culinary school to get her pastry chef certificate and decided that baked goods were just “not right” without real butter!  Lol!

Whether you are an everyday vegan or just like a good, and reasonably healthy, chocolate cake, this one will not disappoint!

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 cups fresh brewed coffee

2/3 cup Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup applesauce

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose white flour

(I have done both.  This time I used white all-purpose flour.)

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp powdered sugar

(I probably used a little more)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease an 8 or 10 inch bundt pan.

Bring the coffee to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat.  Once it is simmering, turn down the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until it has dissolved.  Remove from the heat and set aside to bring to room temperature.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, canola oil, applesauce and cornstarch until sugar and cornstarch are dissolved, about 2 minutes.  Mix in the extracts.  Once the chocolate has cooled a bit, mix that in as well.

Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  beat until relatively smooth, about 1 minute minute with a hand mixer or two minutes with a whisk.  

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick or butter knife inserted through the center comes out clean.  If your pan is on the smaller side, it could take up to 55 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool for about 20 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate to cool completely.  Once cool, sift confectioners’ sugar over the top and enjoy!

I am going solo here this week because Tracey has a busy week of family birthdays - Harry’s, hers, and her niece’s.  They are lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to grandma and grandpa’s last weekend and the grandparents are coming to them this weekend.  The best gift I could think to give her was time to enjoy her family and not have to worry about squeezing a Friday post in.  I do wish I could share this cake with her.  I sure don’t need to eat it myself, even if it is lower fat!!!  So, if you have a few minutes, send Tracey some belated birthday wishes!  Her birthday was the 24th.

Also, if you are interested in random glimpses into our everyday lives, scroll back to see the first few posts in our new series "Mug Shots."  Yep, they are the real life images of two coffee addicts!