I was so excited for this week's GBBO, and it didn't disappoint at all!! There were so many recipes I wanted to give a go, and am sure I will bake in the coming weeks. The first, however, was Briony's showstopper - a lovely looking chocolate coffee hazelnut cake, filled with raspberry jam, and coated in a vegan chocolate ganache. Due to time constraints, I didn't make all the elements she did, and I had to alter the recipe slightly, as I couldn't find a few ingredients.
Despite these alterations, the sponge is amazing - like a brownie, you wouldn't know it contained no dairy or eggs! As I've mentioned in previous posts, I try to not eat anything cream-based and have always struggled with ganache. Previously, I've tried water-based ganache, but Briony used full-fat coconut cream instead, and as a coconut lover, I gave this a go. My ganache firmed up a bit too much, but after adding a bit of hot water, it spread really nicely and the recipe made plenty for the whole cake.
Also, when picking a dark chocolate, don't just look in your dairy-free aisle. Good quality dark chocolate should never contain milk, and therefore is vegan without saying it directly on the packaging. I used a Tesco cooking dark chocolate, after checking the ingredients and finding no dairy. This saved me quite a bit of money due to the premium shops put on some vegan foods.
Now, I have to admit I am not a lover of vegan buttercream - I've yet to find a recipe where the frosting pipes to make lovely crisp flowers and leaves. This could be due a lack of decent vegan butter available in the supermarkets I frequent, so I'm going to keep an eye out and keep trying different brands. Briony's recipe does work and makes fairly stiff buttercream, but it still doesn't work quite as well as "real" buttercream. It does look pretty though, just be careful to keep the cake cold after piping so the buttercream doesn't soften too much.
This cake will easily serve 10 :)
Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 565g (4 & 1/2 cups) self-raising flour
- 600g (3 cups) granulated sugar
- 125g (1 cup) cocoa powder (I used Dr Oetker)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 200g (1 & 1/3 cups) hazelnuts, roasted, peeled and roughly chopped*
- 200g (7/8 cup) dairy-free spread, melted
- 400ml (1 & 2/3 cups) hazelnut milk (I used Innocent)
- 250ml (1 cup and 2 tsp) walnut oil
- 1 tsp xantham gum
- 3 1/2 tbsp instant coffee granules
- 50ml (3 tbsp and 1 tsp) boiling water
For the vegan ganache:
- 300g (around 1 & 1/5 cups) coconut cream (NOT creamed coconut)
- 300g (1 cup and 2 tbsp) dairy-free dark chocolate (I used an 85% but 70% would work well)
- pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp Kahlua
For the vegan buttercream:
- 50g (3 tbsp) vegan margarine
- 200g (2 cups) sifted icing sugar
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- Red and green concentrated gel food colouring (I use Wilton)
To finish:
- Around 200g (5/8 cup) raspberry jam
*It tends to be much cheaper to buy whole hazelnuts and roast them yourself. Simply preheat your oven to 200c (180c fan)/400f/gas mark 6, and cook the hazelnuts for 5 minutes. Pour into a sieve and shake to peel off the skins. Pick out all of the peeled hazelnuts, cool, and then roughly chop.
Method:
Ganache
The ganache takes a few hours to firm up so I would suggest making this first.
1. Chop all of the chocolate roughly and pour into a heatproof bowl.
2. Heat the coconut cream in a saucepan over a low heat until it is bubbling. Take off the heat and pour over the chocolate. Stir until all of the chocolate has melted.
3. Stir in the Kahlua. Cover with cling-film and chill for around 2 hours, or until it is spreadable (a Nutella-like consistency would work well).
4. If the ganache becomes too firm, don't worry! Boil a kettle and add boiling water, half a teaspoon at a time, beating well after each addition, until it is back to the ideal spreadable consistency.
5. Before using, whisk the ganache to aerate it, using a hand-whisk or in a stand mixer. It will become a light brown colour and increase in volume.
Cake Layers
1. Make the sponge. Preheat your oven to 180c (160c)/355f/gas mark 4. Grease the base and sides of three 20cm circular cake tins, and dust with flour (I find this gives a better result than using baking parchment).
2. In a large mixing bowl, pour the self-raising flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, roasted hazelnuts, and salt. Briefly stir together.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, pour the melted spread and hazelnut milk, and start whisking on a medium speed. Add the boiling water to the instant coffee, mix until smooth, and then pour into the spread/milk mix, along with the walnut oil and xantham gum (whilst whisking). Whisk for a few minutes to aerate.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet mix. Beat until all of the dry ingredients have been incorporated. My batter ended up very thick.
5. Evenly divide between the three cake tins, and bake for around 35 minutes, until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Once cooked, leave to cool for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully.
Vegan "Buttercream"
1. Beat the margarine with the icing sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.
2. Spoon out one-third of the buttercream, and colour this green. Colour the remaining buttercream a red/pink colour. Chill until ready to use.
Assembly
1. Place a tablespoon of ganache on your serving dish. Place the first sponge on this ganache and press down lightly. This sticks the cake to your dish, making it easier to decorate.
2. Spread over a thin layer of the ganache, and then spread over half of the raspberry jam - you want there to be a visible layer of raspberry as the chocolate and coffee flavours are so strong.
3. Top with the next layer of sponge. Spread over another thin layer of ganache, then the remaining raspberry jam. Top with the final layer of sponge.
4. Cover the top and sides of the cake with ganache - take time doing this, it can take a bit of patience to make sure all of the cake is covered neatly. I found I got a neater finish by dipping a palette knife (or you could use an icing smoother) in hot water, drying it, and then smoothing over the top and sides of the cake.
5. Place a 2D Wilton nozzle (large rose tip) into one piping bag, and a large leaf nozzle (Wilton 366) into another. Spoon the red buttercream into the piping bag with the 2D nozzle, and the green buttercream into the other piping bag.
6. Snip off the ends of each piping bag, and pipe roses and leaves onto the cake as desired.
To pipe roses - hold the piping bag vertically over where the middle of the flower will be, and then pipe a spiral outwards.
To pipe leaves, simply use even pressure to pipe around 2cm lines on the cake - the nozzle gives the leaf effect.
7. Enjoy!
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