Chocolate Love Cake (Vegan Chocolate Cake with a berry filling)

February brings mixed emotions in me. One one hand it brings us a lot of snow storms but on the other hand it also is so romantic because of Valentine’s day. Our wedding anniversary also falls close to V day so for me Feb says ROMANCE in capital letters 🙂 And so once again I got my twin heart shaped cake pans out from the pantry. Since I have been on a dairy free diet for the last 4 months in an effort to reduce my RA flares, I thought of going completely dairy free i.e. no eggs too and so decided to bake a vegan cake. I had also been meaning to bake this Sri Lankan ‘Love’ cake that I had pinned several weeks ago when I was browsing and collecting interesting Sri Lankan recipes. When I had first seen this recipe, owing to its name, I had mentally pinned it to bake it for our ‘Anniv cum V- day’ celebration.  How perfect – love cake for Valentine’s, isn’t it? This cake looked so good with the richness of cashew nuts. Yes, it is indeed called as the ‘love cake’ 🙂

Anyways now since I was going the vegan route, I decided to skip the original recipe which is heavy on eggs but decided to still add cashew nuts to my cake. And further in my quest for really making this a healthful cake I also added another of my favorite (and secret) healthy ingredient …yeah you got it …beet puree! 🙂 I had made Beet Red Velvet Cup Cakes once before so I was confident that it would be all good! And I wasn’t wrong. I also replaced part of the flour with whole wheat flour. But I also wanted to make this a really decadent cake with minimal frosting and so made a cherry and strawberry filling. A decoration with fresh fruits sealed the healthful deal.

Pleased to report that hubby and the kids were bowled over by both the beauty and the decadence of this vegan beauty. See, it’s possible to make a healthy cake and eat devour it too 🙂 Happy Valentine’s day to you and ‘yours only’. Much Love to you all!

I am bringing this healthy and delicious ‘Chocolate Love Cake’ (yes I think ‘love cake is a perfect way to describe this beauty) this week to Throwback Thursdays as well as Fiesta Friday.  Lily at the Littlesweetbaker  and Julianna from Foodie on Board are co-hosting FF this week. What fun!

Adapted from the Basic Vegan cake recipe from Sweetlittlebluebird

Ingredients:

For the chocolate Cake:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
5 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup beet puree (beets cooked and then pureed with very little water to get a thick puree)
1/4 cup cashew nut (powdered in a food processor)

For the berry filling:

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp sugar

1 cup mixed frozen or fresh cherries and strawberries

1 tsp cornstarch

2 tbsp water

For the frosting:

6 oz bar, semi sweet baking chocolate (vegan), chopped into pieces

1/2 cup soy whipping cream / soy creamer

Method:

Pre heat oven to 350 deg F(180 deg C). Mix all the dry ingredients-flours, baking soda,salt,cocoa and sugar in a parchment paper/tray.

In a large mixing bowl add the water, oil,vinegar and vanilla. Add the above dry ingredients to this and mix using an electric mixer.  Add the beet puree and the cashew nut powder. Mix till well blended and you get a smooth mixture.

Pour into 2 greased heart shaped pans. Bake at 350deg F (or 180 deg C) for about 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cakes from oven and let cool.

For the filling:

In a small pot, add the water,sugar and the berries and heat on low to medium heat until the berries are all mashed through. Mix the corn starch in the 2 tbsp water to form a slurry and pour into the berry mixture and stir quickly to form a jelly like texture. Put the heat off and keep aside to cool.

For the frosting:

In a microwave safe bowl, add the soy creamer and heat in microwave for about 30 seconds. Add the chocolate shavings/pieces and stir to completely melt the chocolate. Heat further(20-30 seconds more) if needed. You will get a chocolate ganache. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Assembling the cake:

First arrange one of the heart shaped pieces on the cake tray. Top with the berry filling.  Top with the second cake. Frost with the chocolate ganache. Decorate with fresh fruits.

Notes:

Oven times may vary depending upon pan used. So keep checking early on to see doneness of cakes. If you overcook cake, cakes will dry and will not be moist. You can brush cakes with a simple sugar syrup after they are baked to make them extra moist.