Monday, April 1, 2013

Easter, 2013 and my Four-layered - Coffee frosted - Chocolate Chip - Chocolate Cake!

We had a busy but wonderful Easter celebration.  On Saturday, we went once again to Animal Place like last year, where JK participated in an animal-friendly egg hunt, we all went on a self-guided tour of the pigs, chickens and bunnies, and we enjoyed a lovely picnic afterwards.  The egg hunt is for children two years to seven years old, so JK has only one year left of this event.

We joined a small group for dinner at my parents' home.  I brought my Tropical Seitan Pasta Salad , and we enjoyed burgers, a fruit salad and a green salad.  We also had vegan desserts as well: chocolate chip cookies, fruit cake, and a new cake I introduced to everyone, which I call my Four-layered - Coffee frosted - Chocolate Chip - Chocolate Cake.  It's Easter right?  It has to be something special!  I kept the frosting on the thin side, much to G's utter disappointment, because I thought it was rich enough already.  I'm not a fan of coffee by itself, but I occasionally  like a slight flavor of it in ice cream, and it turned out nicely here, too.  I like the bumpiness of the end result and the bits of brown cake peeking through the frosting.  I could have evened out the tops to make them lay flatter, but I like this look.  It reminds me of old-fashioned times, for some reason, before there were specialty frosting spreaders and electric mixers. This was a  humongous cake, but it was enjoyed by all.  Hope you all had a great holiday, too.

Four-layered - Coffee frosted - Chocolate Chip - Chocolate Cake!

My Easter feast: Boca burger, Tropical Seitan Pasta Salad, Green Salad, Fruit Salad

Our dessert choices: chocolate chip cookies, fruit cake, and my cake.  The licorice that snuck in the picture is from Grandma to little JK.  Artificial flavors and colors are sometimes allowed on holidays, especially if they're from Grandma.  :-)

To make the four layers, place each layer on a cake stand.  With a serrated knife, cut through the cake horizontally, while slowly turning the cake stand.

Here's a slice of that tasty treat!

Four-layered - Coffee frosted - Chocolate Chip - Chocolate Cake!

Ingredients:

Cake:

4 and 1/2 cups flour
2 cups vegan sugar
1 and 1/3 cups cocoa
1 and 1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking soda
3 cups Vanilla Almond milk
3 Tbs. white vinegar
3/4 cup canola oil
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
2 cups vegan chocolate chips

Non-stick spray
Extra flour for dusting

Frosting:

1/2 cup (stick) vegan margarine, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1/3 cup brewed French Roast coffee, cooled completely

Directions:

For the cake:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two round cake pans with the non-stick spray and sprinkle with flour.  Tap out any extra flour, and set pans aside.  In a very large bowl or even a large pot, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the vinegar and almond milk and set aside to curdle for about five minutes.  Add the oil and vanilla extract to the milk mixture and whisk.  Pour into the flour mixture.  With an electric mixer on low, blend until the ingredients are somewhat mixed.  Turn up the speed to medium and mix for about another minute until completely blended.  Pour into waiting pans.  Pour one cup of chocolate chips over each of the pans of batter.  Take a fork and gently press the chocolate chips down a bit into the batter.  (When baked, the tops of the cakes will be bumpy.  When sliced in half, most of the chips will be in the top half of each cake.  This will make the end result: chippy, not chippy, chippy, not chippy.)  Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool in pans on cooling rack for fifteen minutes.  Remove cakes from pans and finish cooling completely.  When cooled down, chill cakes in refrigerator for at least a half an hour, preparing them for slicing.  When cakes are chilled, place one on a cake stand.  Position a large serrated knife in the middle horizontally.  Slice a couple of inches into the cake, then turn the cake stand, repeating the process.  The cake should be sliced all the way through by the time the stand makes a complete revolution.  If not, just carefully slice through whatever little piece is hanging on in the middle.  Repeat process with second cake.

For the frosting:  In a medium bowl, beat the margarine on low speed until creamed.  Add the powdered sugar and continue to beat on low speed until combined.  Add the vanilla and coffee.  Starting on low speed, mix until blended, then work up to medium speed and mix for another four minutes to thicken.  Place the first bottom layer on the cake stand.  Take about four tablespoons of frosting and put a dollop in the center of the layer.  Spread out the frosting, kind of like spider legs, then smooth out over the layer.  Top with the first top layer of cake and repeat process until you reach the last layer.  Use the same method with the top of the cake.  Frost the sides as usual, just trying to cover as much as you can.  If there's any frosting left over, take turns with the sides and top, frosting away and smoothing out, until there is just enough in the bowl to justify finishing it off yourself.  Because this is so large, it can be sliced rather thinly to serve a lot of people.  Feeds five hungry vegans and family and friends for a few days!

15 comments:

  1. oh yum! That looks and sounds delicious. What an epic cake :) Our Easter was full of veggies but I did whip up some veganomicon choc chip walnut cookies to fill the Easter chocolate requirement... not quite the same as your yummy spread though! Thanks for sharing x

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  2. Holy moly! Damn, that cake looks incredible. I'm not a huge fan of frosting either, and I like the homemade look of your cake. Yum!

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  3. Wow!!!! Great desserts. You guys had a blast. So happy you all had a wonderful Easter. I had my dinner on Friday night since I had lots of family in from PA.Keep those recipes coming BM, I'm loving them.

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  4. Claire, we had our share of veggies, too, but I don't know, I guess I wanted to try and make a stupendous dessert. It was fun, but I'll make normal-sized cakes more often. :-)

    Sage, thanks! The frosting amount suited me just fine, but my husband always complains if it's not an inch thick.

    Millie, thanks, and Happy Easter to you!

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  5. Yum! Everything looks so good! I'm happy to hear you all had a lovely Easter weekend. I need to check our your Tropical Seitan Pasta, it looks tasty and certainly sounds interesting!

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  6. That all looks amazing! That bumpiness of the cake reminds me of an old-fashioned cake as well!

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  7. SV, Eep! Do you love to torment me?

    Ingrid, thanks! I think you will really like that pasta salad.

    Diane, you're so sweet to comment on this extremely unhealthy post! I'll post a good veggie dish very soon. :-)

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    1. It's who I am. It's what I do. Currently having heart palpitations from all the caffeine in the frosting.

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  8. You weren't joking when you said it was special! I'd like to climb up to the top of that cake and eat my way to the bottom. And what I like even more about it is that it doesn't look like it would be a total nightmare to cook (though I'm not sure my hands are stable enough to cut the cake straight!)

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  9. You weren't kidding when you said the cake was big — it really dwarfs the other desserts! I imagine it was really delicious. It's great that you have so many choices at your family dinners.

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  10. Wow, I am so impressed, especially with that cake! Happy belated Easter!

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  11. Joey, wow, I love the imagery! You can cut it; just hold the top steady with one hand as you make your cuts.

    Andrea, yes, I noticed it was definitely the giant. It was nice to have completely vegan desserts for once.

    Alessandra, thank you!

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  12. I wish we had a nice sanctuary like that to visit. Great assortment of desserts. Well done, Mama!

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  13. Jenny, thanks! We're very fortunate to have the sanctuary so close to our home. We are regulars there.

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