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| It looks ok from the outside.... |
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| but all the frosting squished out. Insert sad face here, but then... |
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| insert happy face here because you can scrape the extra frosting and jam it on the plate! |
Many people know me through my hummus, I used to sell it. I've heard about dessert hummus, but haven't tasted any yet. It got me to thinking about using hummus in a cake. The magic of the internet told me this was not an original idea, and offered up a few recipes. I chose one and veganized it. Since the main recipe wasn't vegan, I obviously had to make changes. You'll find the recipe by scrolling down, there's no copyright infringement concerns on my part. I used the marshmallow frosting recipe by Gretchen Price published in Modern Vegan Baking. That recipe IS copyrighted, so you won't find it here. I finally got this book and have been playing with it, I recommend it.
Since I've never worked with marshmallow frosting, I wondered how firm it would be, if it would hold up as it's made with aquafaba. This was my frosting of choice as I was completely out of Miyoko's butter, Earth Balance and shortening. I had plenty of confectioner's sugar and aquafaba, which is what you'll need for her recipe. Moving on.... frosting is firm, VERY firm. It holds up well too. Most unfortunately for frosting issues I live tropical. I also am experimenting this month, so things did go a little off the rails. First, I made a 3 layer cake, not 2. Extra weight. Too lazy to consider how to stake and support the cake without stakes and supports having lost all that in the storm. Mistake. Big mistake. I delivered this cake on a day when it was over 90 degrees and the transport took over a half hour. Insert my sad face here. The frosting would've supported 2 of the layers, not 3. I didn't realize while I was frosting the cake the frosting had squished out (see photos). One good thing is look how nicely I leveled the layers, yay! Another good thing is, Gretchen's recipe makes a ridiculous amount of frosting so with that extra huge leftover amount, pack it up in a container and slather it over when serving. The cake itself? Interesting for sure. On day 1 there surely was a faint hummus flavor, sounds gross but it was not unpleasant. My choice for frosting worked really well with this cake. On day 2, the cake became more of a spice cake. No one tasting it from day 2 on could taste the hummus, some people even thought it was carrot cake, which actually brought evil genius to my mind because hummus and carrots. Maybe shred some carrots or zucchini in if you make this. Oh, one other thing with this cake, I had to make my own yogurt in a hurry so I used soy milk, vinegar and agave. You can use store bought non-dairy yogurt, So Delicious makes an unsweetened plain and an unsweetened vanilla, for cake purposes I don't think which one you choose will matter. I say this as once again it's incredibly awesome to see how much things have changed since my first year's participating in VeganMoFo. I used to have to drive to Key West for vegan yogurt, hoping against hope one of the 2 health food stores down there had it in stock. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. Now the shelves everywhere are full of brilliant vegan choices, and even if you cannot find it, you'll google how to make quick instant "yogurt" and in 5 minutes, you've solved that problem too. One other thought, so many people already are using eggless mayo (I love Vegenaise, others use JustMayo or whatever) I'm guessing you can sub the vegan mayo for the vegan yogurt in a pinch too.
Here's the recipe:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1.5 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp baking soda
6 tablespoons unsalted aquafaba, whisked slightly
2/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
2T vegan unflavored yogurt
1T vanilla
1/2 cup hummus (PRO TIP: make your own to save $, or if using store bought make sure you choose one with lots of garlic flavor.... baking will tamp the flavor down immensely)
Use 2 cake pans of 8 or 9" (I used 3 6" pans)
Preheat to 350, 325 for convection. Prep your pans with non-stick spray (I use Vegelene) and a bit of parchment on the bottom.
Sift the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk your aquafaba til it begins to lightly froth, add your hummus, extract, yogurt and sugar, whisking to insure everything is combined and there's no sugar lumps.
Add 1/3 of the wet mix to the dry, stir lightly to combine, then another third, stir, then the last 3rd, stir. Don't overmix you don't want the gluten to begin to develop. Pour into your pans, bake and check for doneness in 15 minutes (yup, 15 minutes). Toothpick test at 15, mine was done in 16 minutes. When done, remove from oven, cool in pans 5 minutes, invert on wire rack to cool completely. Frost as desired.
I think using a vegan dessert hummus in this cake would be really good, in fact if you used a chocolate hummus, maybe add a pop of cayenne to the batter with the cinnamon for a Mexican twist. If you do make a chocolate hummus cake, consider using chocolate soy milk, and chocolate vegan yogurt. This is cake, not brain surgery, let loose, have fun, be vegan.
Day 3 in the books.
xo
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