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Breakfast, Curry & Daal, Dips & Sides, Drinks, Mains, Salads, Sweet Treats.

07/10/15

Divine mocha cake with nutmeg & mocha cashew frosting

Cake batter mix

  • cocoa powder 20g

  • wholewheat flour 150g

  • coconut sugar (or brown sugar) 80g

  • honey 2 tablespoons

  • soda bicarbonate 1 teaspoon

  • baking powder 1 teaspoon

  • nutmeg ¾ teaspoon

  • rice vinegar (or any vinegar) 1 tablespoon

Warm these together in a pan and pour into the cake batter mixture

  • coconut oil ½ cup

  • warm almond milk 150ml

  • coffee 2 tablespoons

Cashew frosting

  • cashews, soaked for 2 hours or longer 120g

  • agave nectar 70g

  • cocoa powder 1 tablespoon

Warm together

  • coconut oil 40g

  • coffee 1 tablespoon

Method

Start by soaking the cashews for a few hours (or overnight). When you’re ready to make the cake, start by preheating the oven on 160C or Gas Mark 4 and grease the cake tin with a little coconut oil. To make the cake, place all the cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl, add the warm blend of coconut oil, almond milk and coffee, and whisk together for 2 minutes, or until well blended. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and level the top. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

While the cake is baking, you can make the cashew frosting. Drain all the water from the cashews and place into a high-speed blender together with agave and cocoa powder. Warm the coconut oil and coffee in a small pan so that both melt, pour into the blender, and blend together all the ingredients until smooth.

Once the cake it baked, let it cool down before spreading a thick layer of the frosting. Garnish with nuts or coconut flakes – or just lightly sprinkle with cinnamon.

This evening’s event at Shoreditch House might be a masterclass, but it’s going to be a real feast, and I just had to make something new. Chocolate it had to be… but I decided to infuse it with coffee and nutmeg. It worked so well in the raw flapjacks I’d made so why not transfer these warming, comforting and energising flavours into a cake. The aroma… well there really is nothing quite like the smell of a freshly baked cake in the oven filling the house. And since the other desserts I’ve made for this evening, Saffron Cheesecake being the star, contain dairy, I decided to make this a vegan cake, with a frosting made of soaked cashews. Utterly divine!

Notes

~ Instant coffee granules work fine for both the cake batter and the frosting, but if you have freshly brewed coffee, pour a couple of shots of the brew (needs to be strong) into the batter. The coconut oil is solid at room temperature, hence needs to be melted on a pan, and adding the coffee granules to this means that the granules also melt.   

~ you can tell the cake is baked by piercing it lightly with a fork – if the fork is clean, the cake is baked. If the fork has a little cake batter stuck to it, then leave it in the oven for a little longer.

~ flour: if you can’t use wheat flour, use spelt flour or all purpose gluten free flour instead 

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