A Chocolate Treat for a Snowy Day!

A thick blanket of snow fell overnight and as I write this blog, ice is decorating pine needles and branches of the trees. We made a decision to stay cozily inside with a warm fire in the woodstove.

All week long, I had been craving chocolate desserts, wanting to dive into a slab of fudgy rich chocolate cake slathered in ganache. I remembered an easy one dish vegan chocolate cake filled with chocolate pudding that I featured in a February 2022 post. It was easy to make, tasted completely decadent and best of all was made with stevia, coconut sugar and with no eggs or butter.

This is what I made today and we just finished big slices that were decorated with fresh raspberries and toasted pecans. It was fudgy, moist and tasted very rich. We enjoyed it with 2 mugs of frothy decaf Cafe au Lait- a perfect guilt free treat for a snowy day!

Snowy Day Chocolate Pudding Vegan Chocolate Cake

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour 
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar*- see note
• 1 cup water

To Make Cake:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease and line one 8×10 cake pan with greased wax or parchment paper.
• Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add the oil, vanilla, vinegar and water. Mix together until smooth.
• Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 25-30 minutes. Do not overbake, the cake should remain soft and fudgy. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
• Remove cake from pan, peel off wax paper and place on rack to cool.

Chocolate Pudding Filling– adapted from Chocolate Cake by Michele Urvater

Ingredients:

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup coconut sugar or monk fruit ( this makes a very bittersweet pudding, feel free to add up to 1/2 to 3/4 sweetener.)

1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond or soy milk

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

4 ounces dark chocolate chopped (I used Equal Exchange Extremely Dark chocolate, but you could semi or bittersweet chocolate for a sweeter taste)

To make the pudding:

In a small mixing bowl, with a fork or small whisk, combine the cornstarch with 1/2 cup of the milk.

In a small saucepan over low heat, bring the remaining 1 cup milk to a simmer with the sugar, stirring occasionally so the milk does not boil over. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

Whisk the cornstarch and milk in the bowl again to make sure the cornstarch is dissolved, and add this to the hot milk and sugar mixture. Return the saucepan to the heat and bring to a simmer until the mixture thickens, whisking constantly. Remove from the hear and add chocolate, stirring until chocolate melts into the mixture. Stir in almond extract. Put pudding in a bowl and refrigerate until cold.

To fill the cake:

Carefully slice cake with a serrated bread knife in half and place one piece on a plate. Spread half of pudding mixture and place other half on top.

Spread remaining pudding on top and decorate with raspberries and toasted pecans. This would also be nice to decorate with sliced strawberries and chocolate chips.

* I was curious to find out why vinegar was called for in the recipe. For the kitchen science geeks, it turns out that vinegar reacts with baking soda to create a chemical reaction that makes the crumb of the cake light and tender!

ENJOY!

AND: Here is the “Tree of the Week”

STAY WARM!