whole grain

Fudgy Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

November 14, 2012 by Erica

I had planned on posting about something completely different today.

But then I thought that would be unfair, because I’ve had chocolate on the brain all week. So obviously everyone should. Also, do you see this cake?

It is fudgy, pumpkiny and vegan. I really hope you’re not sick of pumpkin yet, because this cake is something special!

Last fall, my roommate and I found this recipe on the Whole Foods website. I’m not sure what we were looking for when we found it (not a pumpkin recipe, I don’t think), but we tried it and it was way better than we expected. It was so good that she made it again to surprise me for my birthday! So sweet. (Miss you Kera!)

I was also pleasantly surprised this weekend when I was able to create a vegan version of this cake pretty uneventfully. (That has not been the case for most of my vegan baking attempts… but more on that some other time.) Probably because it was somewhat healthy to start out with, containing pumpkin and all, the vegan version tasted just like I remembered it. Success!

I’m embarrassed to say that this particular cake spent less than 36 hours on this earth. I had some help… but not much.

This cake isn’t too fancy. It’s good for snacking, or bringing over to a friend’s house to share. It’s sweet, but still pretty healthy!

The one problem with this cake is that it always looks so uneven, you know? Every time you cut a slice, the remaining cake just needs to be evened off a little… now just a little over here… oh shoot, might as well just eat the rest of that row.

And that, my friends, is why there was no cake left when Nate got home on Sunday.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Fudgy Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

Hands-on time

10 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

45 mins

Author: Erica

Yields: 9

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup natural cane sugar
1 6-oz container plain soy yogurt (3/4 cup)
1 15-oz can pumpkin purée (1 ½ cups)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups vegan chocolate chips
powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through salt).
In a separate large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, yogurt, pumpkin, and vanilla.
Mix the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Pour into prepared dish. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with fudgy crumbs, about 35 minutes. Set the dish on a cooling rack.
Once thoroughly cool, dust with optional powdered sugar. Slice and serve directly from the dish.

Notes

Adapted from Whole Foods http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/pumpkin-chocolate-cake

Whole Grain Pizza Dough

November 8, 2012 by Erica

This is my favorite pizza dough.

You can always buy pre-made pizza dough in a bag at the grocery store, but it just doesn’t taste as good. Plus your friends will be impressed when you serve them pizza on homemade crust! They don’t know how easy it is. Shhhhh. Don’t tell.

The first time I ever used spelt flour was in this pizza dough. I was making the original Eat, Live, Run recipe and realized I was out of all-purpose flour. Emergency! I went digging around in my cabinets and found an unopened bag of spelt flour I must have bought to try out a forgotten recipe. Well, I was doubtful, but in it went! And it turned out amazing, and I’ve made it that way ever since. Crisis averted! Anyway, if you have a favorite whole grain flour (or just have all-purpose flour in your pantry), you can definitely sub that in here.

This dough is nice and chewy and gets golden and a little crispy in a hot oven. Go make it right now, because tomorrow I’m posting a fall pizza recipe perfect for a Friday Pizza Night!

Whole Grain Pizza Dough

Adapted from Eat, Live, Run

Makes 2 medium-sized pizza doughs

Ingredients:

1 ⅓ cup warm water
1 packet yeast (¼th oz)
2 tsp sea salt
1 ¾ cups spelt flour (or all-purpose or another whole grain flour)
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

Combine warm water and yeast in a large mixing bowl.

Stir in the salt and both types of flour. When the dough holds together, dump it onto a floured work surface and knead for 8 minutes, incorporating the olive oil a ½ Tbsp a time as you go. (You could also do this in a KitchenAid mixer, but I’ve never tried this way.)

When the dough is soft and elastic, rub with olive oil and place in a clean bowl. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm spot for one hour.

After an hour, the dough should have about doubled in size. Cut in half and store in ziploc bags (either 1-2 days in the fridge or much longer than that in the freezer). I like to use one half immediately and freeze the other half for later – just defrost in the fridge overnight.

When you are ready to make your pizza, sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza tray. Stretch out the dough, top with your favorite ingredients, and bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!

Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with Candied Lemons

November 2, 2012 by Erica

Happy Friday!

I’m so excited to share this cake today. Mostly because it’s just SO pretty. (Apparently candied lemons will do that to just about anything. Even a cake that rose slightly higher on the sides than in the middle!)

But I’m also excited to share it because it tastes good! I am typically a frosting person, but this cake is so flavorful on its own that it really doesn’t need much extra. The tart lemon, aromatic rosemary, and rich olive oil are all noticeable in the finished cake, without being overpowering. This made me so happy – I hate it when unique ingredients seem to bake off and are totally undetectable in the finished cake. The spelt flour adds nutty whole-grain flavor, too. All combined, it is both sweet and savory, and something a little outside the ordinary – in a very good way!

I’m lucky that Nate and I had a few friends to help us polish this off. (Thanks guys!) Otherwise I guarantee I would have gone to bed with a big stomach-ache.

While I didn’t intend to use an existing recipe for this cake, once I started researching, it just sort of happened that way. I guess I’m scared of developing my own recipes when baking, or even modifying existing ones, because you can only do so much taste testing as you go. At some point you have to stick it in the oven and commit to any horrible newbie vegan baking mistake that comes out on the other side. I don’t know. I’ll get there. For now, this is a lovely recipe from The Gluttonous Vegan. It may seem to have a lot of components, but it’s really very simple (mix it up and put it in the oven) and fun to make.

If I tell you to bake this cake this weekend, will you do it?

Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with Candied Lemons

Adapted from The Gluttonous Vegan and Eat, Live, Run

Ingredients:

For the cake:
3 cups spelt flour (whole wheat pastry flour would also work)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups sugar
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
½ cup olive oil
¾ cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
¼ cup canola oil
1 tsp grated lemon zest
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

For the candied lemons:
2 lemons, thinly sliced
½ cup water
½ cup granulated sugar

To top:
Sprig of rosemary

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 inch cake tin or two smaller tins.

Combine all the dry ingredients (flour through rosemary) in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Pour in the olive oil and almond milk and beat until those are incorporated. Now add the canola oil and mix again. Finally, mix in the lemon juice and zest.

Pour batter into the greased cake in. If you can, mound the batter up in the middle a bit, as the sides may rise more. (I ended up using a spring-form pan because it’s really the only cake-shaped pan I have. If you have a 9 inch cake tin, that should work, or use 2 smaller ones.)

Bake at 350 until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The original recipe said to bake 25-30 minutes, but mine took 42. This will vary a lot based on your oven and the tin that you use! I would say test every 5 minutes starting at 30 minutes. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before glazing.

While the cake is in the oven, candy the lemons. This part is optional, but I absolutely love the way they look (although they served purely as a garnish; we didn’t really eat them). Bring the water and sugar to boil in a large pan. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add in the lemons. Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the lemons are translucent. Remove with tongs and drain on wax paper, then refrigerate until cooled.

Next up, make the glaze. Sift the powdered sugar into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk in the lemon juice one tablespoon at a time, continuing until you have a pretty runny consistency.

Last but not least, assemble your cake! Once the cake has cooled, place it on your serving platter and drizzle the glaze over. You may not use all the glaze. (In fact, I recommend using only half unless you have a major sweet tooth.) Finally, garnish with candied lemons and a sprig of rosemary!

So pretty. Enjoy!

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