Chocolate Fudge Cake with Rich Coconut Cream Ganache

I celebrated my birthday last week by making and eating this super rich vegan chocolate fudge cake. Very easy and possibly the best ganache in memory. Thank you to my friend Sid for passing on the recipe (link here but also copy-pasted below).

 

(From thekindcook.com)

INGREDIENTS (FOR THE CAKE)

1 cup of plain flour

¼ cup of cocoa

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

½ teaspoon of salt

1/3 cup of oil (I used rice bran oil)

1 cup of rice milk

INSTRUCTIONS (FOR THE CAKE)

Preheat your oven to 180%.

Carefully line a cake tin with baking paper. This is a really important step because it always sticks as it is such a wet fudgy consistency.

Sift all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine. Whisk all the wet ingredients together. Put the dry ingredients into the wet and gently fold them through until well combined.

Pop in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. The time will vary depending on your oven. You are looking for a cake where the top is not wobbly, the sides have come away from the edge of the cake tin and a bamboo skewer comes out clean. Once cooked, remove and allow to cool.

INGREDIENTS (FOR THE ICING)

2/3 cups of coconut cream

120 grams of icing sugar

½ cup of cocoa

150 grams of Lindt dark chocolate. Must be at least 70% cocoa

INSTRUCTIONS (FOR THE ICING)

Make your icing once your cake is almost cooled, out of its tin and on a serving plate.

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.

Melt the chocolate. While the chocolate is melting put the coconut cream into a small pot and gently heat. You don’t want to boil it. You just want to bring it up to a nice warm temperature. Once the chocolate is melted quickly whisk it into the warm coconut cream until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture and whisk until well combined and scrape out onto the cake. Distribute evenly. There is PLENTY so it will be lovely and thick.

Top with your favourite berries and serve.

Servings:  Enough for 8 good slices

Time: Takes about an hour plus allow cooling time.

Freeze: N/A

Notes:  I find this much easier to slice if you make and ice it the day before and refrigerate it over night. Just make sure you pull it out a couple of hours before you serve it so the ganache is nice and soft.

Topping with berries is really recommended because this is such a rich, sweet cake so the bitterness from the berries provides a lovely balance.

Melbourne restaurants

Chin Chin 125 Flinders Lane (South-East Asian)

Last month I  completed my first visit to Australia. Even though it's taken me long enough to write about it, I still feel compelled to so -- Melbourne was a wonderful place and experience. The trip was work-related, but my friend I managed to steal away enough time to explore the city in good time, and every evening we made a point of eating well.

Mamasita 11 Collins Street (Mexican)

We didn't have to go far to find good ones. Excellent ones, in fact. There wasn't a single evening that we left a restaurant unsatisfied. Each one served fantastic, creative, down-to-earth food that respected the natural flavours of good-quality raw ingredients. Though choice was sometimes a little limited, all the vegetarian options that I enjoyed were impressive and didn't leave me wanting In fact, given the variety at some places, it was almost a relief to be a vegetarian since it cuts down the amount of choice... I also noticed that a few places make a point of offering gluten free dishes (like Chin Chin and Sonido), which was rare elsewhere.

Meatball & Wine Bar 135 Flinders Lane (Italian Artisan Meatball Restaurant)

I also learned that Melbourners eat out early. Restaurants (at least in the CDB) are packed from 5:30 onwards. Most of the places don't take reservations and work on a first-come-first-serve basis. Most places also felt quite noisy - you often had to shout. For some reason my companion and I were dismayed at the poor quality of the Australian red wine served in many places (Cumulus Inc, Movida and Meatball were notable exceptions) - best keep to white to be safe unless certain. I was also surprised that Australian prices are a bit higher than Finland. Still, the food was so fantastic that it was worth the culinary experience. This feeling is merely heightened by the buzzing and abundant café culture that sweeps right through the entire city, but that's another story. In sum, rest assured, Melbourne is up there with the great cities of the world and in my book easily competes with the likes of New York when it come to eating out.

Sonido 69 Gertrude Street (South American café-restaurant-bar)

See also these fab spots:

Culumus Inc - 45 Flinders Lane

(Mixed cuisine with French emphasis)

Movida - 1 Hosier Lane

Tapas restaurant

NB: I do not take credit for any of the photos posted here. All credits belongs to the authors of the pages the link leads to.