Is that a ridiculous enough title for you? This is what happens when a cake goes sort of wrong. Not the title. The cake, I mean. I almost wrote “horribly wrong”, but it really didn’t go horribly wrong, and it still ended up being delicious. Perhaps even more delicious than the planned results. It just went poorly enough that I had to wing it.
Stuff that went wrong:
1. My chocolate cake collapsed in the middle
2. My egg whites wouldn’t rise, so I couldn’t make a meringue to coat the frozen cake, like a baked alaska
3. My coconut cream hardened into a rock, so I couldn’t whip it into fluffy dairy-free whipped cream
BUT!
1. My gooey mess turned out to be a delicious part of the cake. And I figured I could just stuff it with peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough instead of putting a layer of the peanut-y goodness on top. I love surprises inside cakes.
2. Baked egg whites with honey, sugar, vanilla and a tiny bit of salt = lighthearted custard. Browned top and gooey inside. Apparently “gooey” is my favourite word, but only when paired with other, more firm cake-like textures and more soupy creme anglaise-like textures
3. Rock hard coconut cream that doesn’t want to fluff will still melt…into something resembling a creme anglaise
So this is the recipe for how to make dessert wrong, but oh-so-right. If your cake doesn’t collapse, so be it. Just put the cookie dough on top as per usual. You could even make an actual rising meringue, and bake it all around the cake for a fudgey baked alaska without the ice cream.
Fallen Chocolate Fudge Cake
1 oz. bittersweet, dairy-free chocolate (either weigh it or calculate it out. From my bar of my dark Green & Black’s Organics, it was about 1/3 of the bar)
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot coffee or water
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp almond milk
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1 vanilla bean, split open lengthwise and seeds scraped out with a spoon (1 tsp vanilla extract)
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup cane sugar, tightly packed
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup earth balance at room temperature
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9-inch springform pan with a circle of parchment paper. Grease paper and sides of pan with earth balance and dust with flour. Remove excess flour.
In a medium bowl, whisk the chocolate, cocoa and hot coffee (or water) until smooth. Or melt the chocolate in a bowl with the cocoa and coffee (or water) set over a double boiler. You can also do this in microwave, but you’re more likely to mess up and burn the chocolate that way. Just simmer an inch of water in a pot, set a heat-proof bowl with the chocolate and things above it, and stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted completely. This way you don’t need to evenly chop the chocolate – a time-consuming, labour-intensive task.
In another bowl, whisk the egg, egg yolk, almond milk, lemon juice, half the chocolate mixture, and vanilla bean seeds until just combined.
In a large bowl sieve together the flours, sugar, baking soda and salt. The sieving makes the flours lighter and less “gluten-free” tasting. Add the earth balance and the remaining chocolate mixture. Whisk until the dry ingredients are moistened, then beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add half the egg mixture and then beat on medium-low speed and gradually increasing to medium. Beat for 45 seconds. Turn off mixer. Add the remaining egg mixture and beat on medium-low speed , gradually increasing again to medium. Beat on medium speed for 45 seconds. This is supposed to strengthen the structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface evenly with a spatula.
Bake for 30-40 minutes (check at 30), or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, and the cake springs back when pressed in the middle. Let the baked cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove sides and let cool completely on a wire rack. Place a plate on top cake and flip over. Remove bottom of springform pan and peel away parchment paper. Place a second plate over cake and flip back upright. It should fall in the middle, but if it doesn’t, don’t worry about it.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
1/2 cup (4 ounces) earth balance or unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup cane sugar
1 1/2 tsp molasses
1 vanilla bean, slit open lengthwise and seeds scraped out with a spoon (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
3 tablespoons natural peanut butter
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
In a large bowl, cream earth balance and sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes on high. Beat in peanut butter and vanilla seeds.
Sieve together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add all at once to the butter and sugar mixture and stir just until incorporated. Add the chocolate chips.
If your chocolate cake didn’t fall in the middle, line an 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper cut out to the same diameter as the bottom of the pan. If it did fall as it was supposed to, press the cookie dough to only 7-inches or 8-inches in diametre, then remove it from the parchment and press it into the fallen middle of the chocolate cake. Place in freezer until ready to assemble cake.
Honey-Vanilla Custard
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups cane sugar
1/2 cup honey
large pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, slit open lengthwise, seeds scraped out (or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract)
In a large pot, bring about 2 inches of water to a simmer.
In a large, heat-proof bowl that fits above the simmering water without touching it, whisk together egg whites, sugar, honey and salt.
Place the bowl over the simmering water, reduce the heat a tiny bit to medium-low, and whisk as it heats, just until the sugar dissolves (about 5 minutes). Don’t scramble the eggs. Keep the heat low.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Being careful not to burn your hands on the hot bowl, remove it from the top of the pot. Beat it on high for 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla seeds and transfer to a greased 8-inch baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until top is golden brown.
Coconut Creme Anglaise
2 cans coconut milk
Let the coconut milk sit in the cans, unopened, in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Open the can without shaking the milk and skim off of the rock-hard cream on top. Heat in a small saucepan over low heat until melted.
Remove cake from freezer and cut into slices. Pour a drizzle of coconut creme anglaise over each piece. Place a scoop of custard on the side, or pour the coconut cream over top of everything, in one giant, delicious mess. An eton mess???
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