December 20th, 2015
My reason for posting this festive cake today is not only a holiday related one. I’m very excited to finally announce that Masha and I are working on our second cookbook, scheduled to come out in the Fall of 2017, published by Roost Books. The working title is Simply Vibrant, which quite accurately describes what the book will be all about. Like in The Vibrant Table, the recipes in this book will focus on healthful, whole foods ingredients, with a new key element of simplicity. This time around, I’m giving lots of thought to practicality, quick preparation and accessible ingredients, all under the umbrella of seasonality. We have lots of hard work ahead – you can always follow along with the trials and errors on Instagram, #simplyvibrantcookbook.
Now it’s time to celebrate with cake!
This cake started with a craving I had for one of my favorite childhood treats, the rum baba. When I was a kid in Russia, I would often buy the sweet, raisin studded, glazed pastry on my walk home from school. To this day, I go crazy for any baked goods that contain raisins.
This cake has all of the properties of the rum baba and more. The batter is based on spelt dough with pear and sweet potato puree, which makes it very moist. Adding to that, the raisins are plumpened through soaking in rum or orange juice. The finishing touch is a glaze that I’m quite proud of – Miso and Orange Glaze, enough said.
Wishing Happy Holidays to you and your family, cheers to 2016!
I created this recipe as part of a healthy recipe package for Food & Wine online, see the detailed recipe here.
Tags: cake, dessert, miso, orange, raisins, rum, spelt
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December 7th, 2014
Today I’d like to talk about At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen, a book I’ve been cooking from non-stop since getting my copy. You may be familiar with author Amy Chaplin’s work through her beautiful blog, where she shares some of the most practical and creative natural foods recipes around. As for her cookbook, I feel as if anything I say about it will be an understatement: it’s wise and useful beyond words, as well as visually stunning, with photography by Johnny Miller. The book’s vastness and wealth of fascinating recipes and tips has me reaching for it daily.
Some of the dishes I’ve made include Cherry Coconut Granola, Cauliflower and Celery Root Soup, Eggplant Curry, Almond Butter Brownies, Chocolate Hazelnut Layer Cake.
To complete my love serenade for Amy’s book, I made this decadent cake. I played with the original recipe a bit, making the ganache white, while Amy’s is chocolate. I also added chocolate into the batter, while the original recipe only calls for cacao. I also previously made the original one and loved it as well.
Amy and I share the same publisher, and the nice people at Roost Books were generous to send me an additional copy of At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen to give away. To enter, leave a comment here until December 14th, 2014. Good luck to all!
Double Chocolate Layer Cake with White Chocolate Ganache, Tart Cherries and Pomegranate
Notes: In the original version, Amy frosts the entire cake with dark chocolate ganache. She crushes 1 1/3 cups toasted hazelnuts and presses them into sides of the cake like this.
for the ganache
2 13.5 oz cans unsweetened full fat coconut milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
5 tablespoons agar flakes
pinch sea salt
3 1/2 oz white chocolate, I used this brand (you can use dark chocolate as per original version)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
for the cake
2/3 cup toasted hazelnuts (original version calls for 2 cups)
2 cups whole spelt flour – divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 cup melted extra virgin coconut oil, plus more for oiling the pan
1 1/2 cups maple syrup
1 teaspoon unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate (my addition to original recipe)
for the filling (my simplified version)
cocoa nibs – optional
frozen or canned tart cherries – thawed/drained well
1 large pomegranate
to make the ganache
1. Whisk together coconut milk, maple syrup, agar flakes and salt in a medium pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, whisk often. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, covered, whisking every 5 minutes.
2. Remove from heat, add chocolate and let it melt for 2 minutes in the covered pot. Whisk until smooth. Pour into a shallow bowl and allow to cool until it stops steaming. Put in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, or until cold and completely hard.
3. Roughly cut ganache into 1-inch pieces and add to a food processor with orange juice and vanilla. Blend until smooth, scraping down sides as necessary. Transfer to a container and refrigerate until cake is ready for frosting.
to make the cake
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Oil cake pans and line bottom of each with a parchment paper. (I used 7 1/2-inch spring form to bake 3 layers. Original recipe calls for two 8-inch layers.)
2. Add 2/3 cup of hazelnuts and 1/4 cup of spelt flour into a food processor and grind finely. Transfer into a medium bowl and sift in remaining 1 3/4 cups spelt flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir to combine well, set aside.
3. Whisk cocoa powder and boiling water until smooth in another medium bowl. Add ground flax seeds, coconut oil, maple syrup, vinegar, vanilla and salt, whisk until thoroughly combined.
4. Add flour mixture to liquid ingredients and whisk to make a smooth batter. Fold in chopped chocolate. Divide the batter between prepared pans and bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
to assemble the cake
1. Invert first layer on a cake stand or a plate. Remove parchment paper. Cover with a layer of tart cherries. Scoop 1/3 of ganache on top of cherries, even it out. sprinkle with cocoa nibs (if using) and pomegranate kernels.
2. Invert second layer on top, remove parchment paper. Repeat with cherries, ganache, cocoa nibs and pomegranate.
3. Invert third layer on top. Frost with the last 1/3 of ganache and top with pomegranate kernels. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve, try to wait at least a couple hours before cutting the cake; overnight is great too.
Tags: cake, cherry, chocolate, pomegranate, vegan
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January 31st, 2014
I must admit that I’m not very skilled when it comes to proper cake making. I could tell you about several disasters, like that time when my cake unexplainably exploded all over the refrigerator, or that other time when the cake fell on the floor right as I opened the refrigerator door, or I could mention many of my multilayered cake creations that sadly leaned to one side like the Tower of Pisa, or about the beautiful pink icing (Paloma’s birthday request) that discolored and became brown right before serving. Each time these kinds of things happen, I swear to never make cake again but never stick to my resolutions. And every time a cake I make actually comes out well, I find it to be enough reason to celebrate and dig right in.
Carrot cake is the darling of the cake world, what’s not to love? It’s classic and simple. But how about parsnips, the carrot’s albino cousins that show up among other hearty winter root veggies this time of year? I grew up snacking on raw parsnips right from the garden, and they were a mandatory ingredient in my mom’s famous borsch. I also love a good parsnip mash as a side dish to anything. This time the parsnips went into a dessert – a fairly simple cake topped with home candied kumquats.
I find the candied kumquats essential to experience the full flavor of this cake. If you can’t find kumquats, substitute with Meyer lemons, sour oranges or any other candied citrus. This was my very first time working with kumquats, and I can attest to their perfect balance of sweet, sour and orangey notes that make for a beautiful cake topping or marmalade. And take a look at more kumquat recipes over at my latest food blog crush, Princess Tofu, here, here and here.
Many thanks to everyone for your thoughtful comments on the Wholistic Chakra system giveaway. It has now been closed and the winner (The Rose Journals) has been emailed. Elena of Wholistic drew the winner herself!
Candied Kumquats
¾ cup honey
½ cup water
1 vanilla bean – seeds scraped out
2 pints (about 4 cups) of kumquats – sliced
In a small to medium saucepan, combine honey with water, vanilla seeds and bean, bring to a gentle boil. Add in the kumquats and bring back to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool down and keep the kumquats in the syrup, refrigerated.
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
2 packages of plain Tofutti cream cheese
fat from 1 can full-fat unsweetened Thai coconut milk
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
generous squeeze of lemon juice
Place the can of coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight. The fat and water should separate and fat should accumulate on top. Carefully scoop it out and combine with the rest of the ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl. Beat it with a hand mixer until well combined and fluffy. Keep refrigerated while baking the cake.
Gluten Free and Vegan Parsnip Cake
¾ cup unsweetened almond milk
¼ cup ground chia seeds or flax seeds
¾ cup (105 g) buckwheat flour
¾ cup (90 g) millet flour
¾ cup (90 g) tapioca flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¾ cup coconut sugar
1 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest of 1 orange
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
about 3 cups grated parsnips
1 ½ cups walnuts or pecans – chopped
1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Bring almond milk to a boil, mix with ground chia in a large mixing bowl. Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes.
2. Combine all the flours, baking powder and soda, salt and spices in a mixing bowl, set aside.
3. Add sugar to the milk-chia mixture and mix using a hand-mixer. Continue by adding in olive oil and vanilla extract, then orange zest and juice. Mix to combine thoroughly with a hand mixer.
4. Add dry ingredients into the wet, mixing them in with the mixer.
5. Fold in the parsnips and walnuts.
6. Prepare a 6-inch cake pan or a spring form. If using a cake pan, cover it with parchment paper. I using a spring form, generously grease it with olive or coconut oil.
7. Spoon ⅓ of the batter at a time into the pan/form and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Repeat with the other two thirds. You can also bake two 8-inch cakes if you don’t have a 6-inch pan, or even bake all the batter at once like a thick cake (you may need to increase the baking time in this case) and then cut the cake into layers horizontally. Make sure that the cakes are completely cool before cutting or frosting them.
8. Place one layer of the cake onto a cake stand or plate. Generously cover with a layer of cream cheese frosting and a thin layer of candied kumquats. Carefully place a second layer of the cake on top following by another frosting and kumquat layers. Finish with the third cake layer and frost the entire cake.
9. Garnish with candied kumquats and let the cake rest in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. Slice and serve with more candied kumquats.
Note: Candied citrus is essential to the flavour of this cake. If you can’t get kumquats, candy Meyer lemons, sour oranges or other citrus.
Tags: cake, citrus, dessert, gluten free, parsnip, recipe, vegan
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