A Dairy Free Christmas

 

 

Merry Christmas to all my loyal followers. It's been fun setting up this blog and I'm happy that I am slowly gaining more followers each week. I've only been doing this since August, so feel free to spread the word!

 

Well, what a lovely Christmas Day we have had. Very relaxed, good food and good company. Today's blog post is for my Chocolate and Coconut Bundt Cake, which I served as our Christmas pudding, since none of us are fans of the traditional mixed fruit pudding.

I took this recipe from Brooklyn Homemaker's Chocolate Peppermint Bundt cake, but since my son doesn't like peppermint, I altered it to a coconut flavour instead. I will admit, I loved the sound of the original, but I love all things mint, so it's to be expected.

 

Anyway, I made some slight adaptions to the recipe to make it dairy free, so I will post it below, but you can click the link above to see the original.

 

Today I used my new NordicWare Heritage Bundt Pan, which I only bought last week. I was so very pleased that the cake came out so cleanly. I just love it!

 

 

 Chocolate Bundt Cake with Dark Chocolate and Coconut Ganache

• Servings: 12
• adapted from Brooklyn Homemaker

 

For the Cake:

1 1/4 cups water
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder(or bi carb soda if using buttermilk)
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups soya milk (or buttermilk if you can have dairy)
1 cup sunflower oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted

 

For the Coconut and Dark Chocolate Ganache:

 200g best quality dark chocolate, chopped (I used Sainsbury's dark cooking chocolate as it is dairy free)
 3/4 cup coconut milk
 Desiccated coconut to sprinkle on top

 

 

1. Place an oven rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 180 degrees C.
2. Liberally butter and flour a 10 to 12 cup Bundt pan and set aside.

3. Whisk water and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk on low for just one minute. Add the milk, oil and vanilla extract and mix on low again for another minute.
5. Add the flour and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes more.  Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. The batter will seem quite loose and liquid.  Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 55-65, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

6. Let the cake cool completely in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack. Once cooled I trimmed off the top to make it level once inverted.

7. To make the ganache, heat the coconut milk in a heavy pot, just until it begins to simmer. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Let the chocolate melt for a minute or so, then whisk to combine.

8. Drizzle ganache over the cake while it’s still warm and liquid. Sprinkle desiccated coconut over the ganache.

9. Let the ganache set for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

10. We served with hot custard....soooo good!

 

 



Chocolate Bundt Cake

It's been a while since I blogged some of my recipes properly, so you my be inundated as I have been doing a lot of baking lately. This cake is one I made for my son's 6th birthday yesterday. I wanted something simple, but fun, that I could transport to a restaurant in London (on the train!) So it needed to be robust, but tasty.

This is the second time I have made this cake now, the first being for Halloween last month.

My bundt tins are new, my first from the Nordic Ware range and I've really enjoyed using them. For this type of tin, I think you need a fairly stable cake. This recipe, I have to say, is just delicious. It's a Martha Stewart one, and I know I will use it again and again.

Just a few notes for when you are using this recipe and this style of tin. For the Halloween 'pumpkin' cake, I made two cakes separately, trimmed the tops on both to make them flat and the 'sandwiched' them together with a simple orange buttercream in between. I topped that one with some passionfruit icing. The green 'stalk' is just an icecream cone painted with slightly watered down food colouring - I popped it back into a low temp oven to dry out. This is the 12 cup sized tin.

For the blue birthday cake, I used the smaller tin so I also had spare mixture which I used to make some cupcakes with. I didn't trim the top on this one, just turned it over and let it cool. The icing is just very simple, icing sugar and water and I tried out my new gel colours from ProGel. This was turquoise, although looks sky blue really. Still, it's nice to use the tubes to control the amount you use. You let it dry for a few minutes before sprinkling on the 100s & 1000s. This is the 6 cup sized tin.

This really is a delicious chocolate cake, not too sweet and if making it for a more grown up occasion, drizzling chocolate ganache over the top would be perfect.

Chocolate Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

•  1 cup (220g) unsalted butter, plus more for pan      
• 2 1/4 cups (320g) self-raising flour
• 3/4 cup (75g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1  1/2c (375mls)  milk (or milk alternative)
• 1 1/2 cups (350g) caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:                 

1. Make the cake: Preheat oven to 180degrees C. Butter and flour (or use a cake release) a 12-cup Bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, and salt. 
3. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition; add vanilla. If the egg mixture looks like it is having trouble combining properly, you can add a tablespoon of the flour mix to help it come together.
4. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until just combined.
5. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top with an offset spatula.
6. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 50-55 minutes. (40 mins is using the smaller 6 cup tin).
7. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for about 10 mins in the tin, before tipping the cake onto the cooling rack. (Cake can be stored at room temperature, in an air tight container up to 7 days).

Give it a try and let me know if you make the cake!

Kris

UPDATE - May 2023: I quickly make this with King Charles III Coronation sprinkles tonight. Covered in a delicious chocolate ganache made with dark chocolate and Emlie Plant cream. This is just for my family.