Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

Hey everyone,

While I was home for break, I decided I'd try something different and bake an entire cake. Usually I stick with just cupcakes because my apartment oven can dependably bake them and they are much easier to give out to people. So, with some amount of free time and access to a more well-equipped kitchen, I tackled a double layer cake. I'm afraid I don't have photos, but if I re-make it I will post some.

This recipe comes from Joy Wilson's blog Joy the Baker. This is the specific recipe: http://joythebaker.com/2009/07/vegan-chocolate-avocado-cake/.

Her wonderful looking cookbook Joy the Baker Cookbook: 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes includes a very similar recipe in cupcake form with a chocolate frosting. I may have to try that if I ever have spare avocados in my apartment...

Now for the cake details- it pains me to part with 3 avocados so quickly. I'm not from the warmest of climates, so avocados tend to be shipped and the price goes up quite quickly. However, I promise that they went to a delicious cause. Normally I excuse my increasing use of butter due to the fact that, in my opinion, it makes everything delicious. However, I don't think it made a difference this time. This cake is very moist, and the frosting is not as avocado-y as comments on Joy's site would indicate. I will warn you now- it really is green. My skeptical family tried the green covered cake, and reported that it's pretty good despite the unsettling color.

One thing I have to rave about is that for the cake itself you do not need any sort of electric mixer. I usually have to mix everything I make by hand anyways, but this is especially simple to throw together.

Here are the ingredients:

Chocolate Cake (makes 2 8"-9" round cakes)

3 cups all-purpose flour
6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil (Joy used almond oil)
1/2 cup soft avocado, well mashed, about 1 medium avocado (really mash this so it doesn't show up in the finished cake)
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Oven Settings: Preheat oven 350°F.
Spray two 8" or 9" round cake pans, depending on desired thickness of cake layers.
Mash the avocado very well.


Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar.  Set that aside too.

Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, including the super mashed avocado.

Add sugar into the wet mix and stir.

Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat with a whisk (by hand) until smooth.

Pour batter into a greased cake tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. I baked mine for 35 minutes and wish I took it out 5 minutes earlier; the crunchy edges aren't the greatest.

Let cakes cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting with avocado buttercream.


Avocado "Buttercream" Frosting  (Joy got this from Alton Brown)

8 ounces of avocado meat, about 2 small to medium, very ripe avocados (no mushy brown spots in the meat, though)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peel and pit the soft avocados.  It’s important to use the ripest avocados you can get your hands on.  If the avocados have brown spots in the meat, avoid those spots when you scoop the meat into the bowl.

Place the avocado meat into the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment.  Add lemon juice and whisk the avocado on medium speed, until slightly lightened in color and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the powdered sugar a little at a time and beat.  Add vanilla extract until combined.  If not using right away, store in the refrigerator.  Don’t worry.  It won’t turn brown!

I know that the frosting seems very sugar-heavy, but I would still recommend that much because it keeps the recipe buttercream-esque.

Sorry there are no photos, I'll put some up next time I make this or try it in cupcake form.

Boozy Cupcakes: Round 2

Hey everyone,

So this past weekend was a re-make. I re-made Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. This time I added green food coloring to the icing. In addition, the ganache solidified, which really changed the overall texture of the cupcakes. I think this is an improvement. Plus, they are plenty festive for St. Patrick's Day! :)



St. Patrick's Day Success!
Photo Credit: Violet Martin 



Irish Cream Puffs

This was my first-ever attempt to make cream puffs. I have to start off by thanking my friend Kate for her help making the puffs, and for switching off on whipping the cream. It's a bit of an arm workout of a recipe, but fairly worth it. It is a delicious way to use up more of the car-bomb ingredients! :)

I followed this recipe: http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/2078057-Vics-Bailey-s-Irish-Cream-Puffs, but was initially inspired when a friend sent me a recipe which included vanilla pudding mix in the Bailey's filling. Seeing as this is a baking blog, I'm trying bake things from scratch as much as possible, so I searched for an alternative recipe.

I will admit that I don't love everything in this recipe. The chocolate topping did not work out very well. As I was mixing the ingredients over heat I found that the oil was separating from the rest of the mixture and had to be spooned out. My years of chemistry classes were not in vain; I remembered that heat tends to break chemical bonds, making solids more liquid, and that cold tends to reform bonds. So, in a state of panic and science-geek experimentation, I threw the mixture in the fridge. It helped a bit, but I think a poor ingredients list could not be completely saved through technique. If I were to re-do this I would replace the water with milk. I think that the oil (from chocolate) and water combination was a match made in hell (and I'm not even referring to my occasionally uncooperative oven this time).

Cream Puff Close-Up
Photo Credit: Violet Martin

Here are the ingredients:

Cream Puffs
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs

Bailey's Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
1-1 1/2 tablespoons Bailey's

Chocolate Topping
2 3.5 oz dark chocolate
2 oz. butter
1/4 cup water
Bailey's to taste

Oven Settings: Preheat to 450°F
In freezer: Bowl and metal whisk for at least 20 minutes prior to making whipped cream

Cream Puff Directions:


On the stove top, melt butter in 1 cup boiling water. Add flour and salt all at once; stir vigorously. Cook, stirring mixture vigorously, until mixture is smooth and forms a soft ball that doesn’t separate. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Add eggs, one at a time, beating very well after each until smooth.

Drop by teaspoons 3 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 450°F for 15 minutes, then at 325°F for 25 minutes. I only left the pastries in the oven on 325°F for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, split. Turn oven off; put cream puffs back in to dry about 20 minutes (optional). This step was necessary for me. Cool on rack.

This recipe makes about 10 cream puffs. It is a little time consuming if you are only using 1 baking pan, and should count on making the whipped cream while waiting for the cream puffs to dry in the oven and cool.

Cream Puff Dough

Bailey's Whipped Cream Directions:

Chill bowl and metal whisk in freezer for 20 minutes. In chilled bowl whip the cream until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and Bailey’s. Whip to fluffy peaks, about 2 minutes. Fill pastry bag with whipped cream and pipe into cooled cream puffs. I skipped the pastry bag and just cut into the cream puffs and spooned the whipped cream into each of them.


Chocolate Topping Directions:


Melt chocolate with water in a small pot over a low flame. Once melted add butter, whisking the whole time. Should look shiny and creamy! Remove from heat. Spread a thin layer on each cream, using a spatula. Wait until icing hardens a bit to serve it. I had to spoon out the excess oil and chill the mixture for a few minutes in order to get a decent consistency. 

Finished Product!
Photo Credit: Violet Martin

I hope you all enjoy this recipe! I'm not sure I'll have anything new up this upcoming weekend, as St. Patrick's Day is just begging for Irish Car-Bomb cupcakes to be made. :)

Banana Bread No. 2

Sorry if this seems to be a banana bread and chocolate themed blog. Or, as you'll read below, a banana bread, chocolate and alcohol themed blog. I promise that is not intentional. I just had 3 brown, horribly neglected bananas sitting on top of my microwave, and a dear friend's birthday party to go to, so something had to be done. Thus, Banana Bread No. 2 happened.

I will say this- it's a much, much better banana bread. It has more of a kick to it, in a good, not too overwhelming way. This is yet another recipe from Deb at Smitten Kitchen, and the original post can be found here: http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/11/speckled-for-the-freckled/

A few notes before I leave you with the recipe-
1. I used a very smooth Canadian whiskey, not bourbon, which probably took away from the "punch" in the bread.
2. I leaned on the heavier side with the brown sugar because in my mind birthdays = things on the sweeter side.
3. The frosting was very spur of the moment, so I cannot make any promises that a sane person would come up with it. Inspiration came from this recipe: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2009/05/greek-yogurt-frosting-healthy-frosting.html.

Now for the recipe:

Banana Bread

3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4 to 1 cup light brown sugar (depending on the level of sweetness you prefer, I always use the smaller amount)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 4x8" loaf pan.

With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, then the spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into pan. Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan. Personally, the bread took over on hour to bake, and after over 60 minutes uncovered in the oven, I had to resort to wrapping the loaf in foil to keep the top from getting too crunchy, and put it back in for another 10 minutes. Such is baking with Hell, the cake-hating oven.

Baked Bread

Frosting- be warned that I just threw this together, and do not have specific measurements
1 part non-fat Greek yogurt
1 part Nutella
~1 tablespoon whiskey

Chilled Frosting

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and chill. The whiskey should balance out the tartness of the yogurt and the sweetness of the nutella. Spread this over the bread.

Finished Product