Carob/Chocolate Fudge Cake.

Halloo All!!

A few days ago I made this Carob/Chocolate fudge cake from the Hare Krishna recipe book. It was intensely fantabulous, I don't think I could ever make brownies/cake from a box again.

A few notes: the recipe calls for Carob powder, but not having any of that, I used cocoa powder. Personally, I think carob is more socially responsible, because it mostly comes from the Mediterranean region where people are more likely to have been paid a living wage for their efforts, but I'm trying to get rid of all my chocolate.

For the vegans: This recipe called for milk, and also asked to put lemon into the milk. HOWEVER: the recipe also said, "This works great as an egg substitute"--so what you could probably do is make an equivalent amount of vegan egg substitute, or use unsweetened soy milk. (Since it was the first time doing this recipe, I was afraid experiment.)

CAROB FUDGE CAKE:
This two-tiered carob cake is light in texture without the use of eggs. The cake's light texture is due to the sour milk. Filled and iced with Carob Vienna Icing, it is an irresistable dessert. Makes one two-tiered 20-com (8-inch carob fudge cake.*)

125g (6-7 tablespoons) butter (or vegan butter), room temperature
1 cup caster (superfine) sugar*
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup carob/cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup milk*
1 2/3 plain (white) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
pinch salt
jam and cream for filling*
Carob Vienna Icing (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 180C/355F

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy

Whisk carob powder into the hot water and mix to a smooth paste.

Fold together carob mixture and butter-sugar mixture

Combine lemon juice with the milk to sour it (this makes an excellent egg replacer)

sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), and salt, and add it to the creamed mixture alternately with the sour milk. Mix thoroughly.

Spoon the cake mixture into the two buttered 20-cm (8-inch) cake tins.

Bake for 30 min. or until the tops spring back when lightly presed. Allow the cakes to cool in their tins for 10 minutes.

Turn out and allow to cool completely. Fill with jam and ream and ice with Carob Vienna Icing.

CAROB VIENNA ICING:
125g (6 tablespoons) butter/vegan butter
2.5 cups icing (confectioner's sugar)
4 tablespoons carob/cocoa powder
2 tablespoons hot water

Beat the butter until creamy. Sift the sugar. Blend the carob powder with the hot water. Add the icing sugar to the butter alternatively with the carob mixture until it reaches a spreading consistency.

*I never have 20-cm baking pans around, so I used pie tins instead. (I should really get re-usable pie tins...)
*milk: check above recipe for possible things to do if you don't want to use milk
*I didn't really know what "cream" this recipe could have referred to, so what I did was use ice cream instead. (probably could get away with using vegan ice cream, too.)

In order to turn your cake into an ice-cream cake, after letting the cakes cool, put them in the freezer for maybe 15min-1/2 hour. Meanwhile, put ice cream in the refrigerator to let it soften. IT shouldn't melt--just soften.

Take the ice cream and cakes out, cover one of the cakes with ice cream, then put the other cake on top and squish it down a little until it stays. If it doesn't stay, you could cover it with saran wrap, then put it back into the freezer.

Take out when people come over, smear over with frosting, and top with berries or nuts or whatever you feel like to make it a beautiful confection