Individual Chocolate Espresso Cake... with zucchini

The last few weeks my recipes have been heavily influenced by my farm share, as it should be this time of year. Two of my most popular posts, chocolate dipped strawberry creamsicles and lavender marionberry mason jar pie have both been born from farm share goodies. So when I found zucchini in my crate this week, the wheels in my head started turning. I played around with different ideas all week and yesterday I went to work in the kitchen. The result: a moist, rich chocolate espresso cake.

Chocolate Espresso Cake

serves: 2

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp molasses

1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 3 tbsp water)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 small zucchini, grated (about 1/2 cup)

1 tbsp + 1 tsp instant coffee

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

2 half pint mason jars or similar sized baking dish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil two half pint mason jars.

In a medium sized bowl combine wet ingredients (oil, sugar, molasses, flax egg, instant coffee, vanilla, and zucchini), stirring together until uniformly mixed.

In a separate bowl combine the dries (flour, baking soda and powder, and salt). Add dries to wet and mix together. Do not over mix. Fold in chocolate chip.

Fill 1/2 pint jars between 2/3 and 3/4 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until knife comes out clean. Allow cake to cool at least 30 minutes before removing from jar.

Enjoy with a fresh cup of coffee.

A day of red, white, and blue

A very happy July 4th to y'all!

I'm don't usually get so excited about holidays, but this year is different. This year, for the first time in many years, I am enjoying a day off with my family. Probably the hardest aspect (for me) of working in bakeries is coming in on big holidays and making pies and cakes for other people's picnics. So to all my friends who are working today: I hope you feel appreciated and recognized for your hard holiday work. 

This morning I enjoyed sharing the time off with Jason and Eden and started the day off right with some festive waffles.

I used Isa Chandra-Moskowitz' Classic Waffle recipe from her cookbook, Vegan Brunch (which is one of my favorite cookbooks by the way) and then, as you can see, smothered them with berries.

Later today I will be heading out to my parent's farm to enjoy a potluck with entire family. 

This is what I'm bringing:

I got the recipe for this red velvet cake here. This was my second attempt. In my first attempt I tried to make a red velvet cake using beet puree. I did a lot of research, found myself reading about pH levels and types of acidity and after reading numerous blog posts and looking at many Google images, I choose a very un-vegan recipe that I was certain I could veganize. I don't know if it was the process of veganizing it or the recipe itself but the result was a brown cake that tasted like beets.
But this recipe from the tolerant vegan was great, incredibly easy, and I learned that sometimes it's okay to use a little red food coloring.

I made a full batch and bake it on one large cookie sheet for about 23 minutes (until knife comes out clean). After it cooled for several hours (best to put it in fridge), cut it into four even strips. Place the bottom strip on a cutting board (or large platter) and pipe a boarder of frosting around the top edge of the cake. Scoop about 1/2 cup of frosting in the middle of boarder and smooth over with an offset spatula. Top with second layer of cake and repeat twice ending with the final layer of cake.

If you want very clean edges, place cake in freezer. When it is mostly frozen cut the edges of the cake with a sharp, hot knife.

Pipe a bottom and top boarder and cover with blueberries.

Store in refrigerator and bring out one hour before serving.

This is a great technique for decorating. It's much easier than working with round cakes or attempting to frost the whole cake, but equally (if not more) impressive. As always, let me know if you have questions.