Chocolate and Avocado Cake

I admit,  I was sceptical.  I am completely well aware that you can use fruit and vegetables in cake batter.  Carrot cake is a thing after all, and I've read banana is a great substitute for...well, most things actually.  But this is my first time seeing avocado.  Especially as from what I understand it's not usually considered a 'dessert' fruit.  I've seen it used in savoury dinners and salads and as a dip.  It's not exactly sweet (I figured I'd try some whilst working with it. Decided I didn't like it) so would it really hold up in a cake?  Particularly in the buttercream since that's where it's flavour is going to be detected.  Well, I like trying new things so I figured why not?

So how did this come about?  Well, today is the fiancé's Mum's birthday and so obviously that's an excuse to make a cake.  Question was, what kind of cake?  When I asked the fiancé, his response was that she liked the angel food cake I made her last year.  I hate repeating myself though, even if that's partly because I want something I can post about on this blog.  So I was still lacking inspiration by the time Friday last week rolled around and I needed to know so I could make sure I had all the ingredients before I ordered my groceries.  Now Friday I was doing the fiancé's Mum a favour and sitting in her house waiting for people to come and pick up a giant parcel.  I ended up waiting on them for a total of 6 hours, which is really quite boring.  To amuse myself I borrowed her laptop and did what I usually do when I can't think of anything better to do (or don't feel like doing any of the things I actually brought with me), which was browse around on Pinterest.  Recently I've been trying to expand what I make for my dinner so I've been hanging around the food section a lot.  It was there I stumbled across a pin about a chocolate and beets cake.  The cake itself wasn't what got me though, it was the accompanying comment, which mentioned chocolate and avocado cake and it being really good.  Now, I know the fiancé's Mum likes avocados so thought this could be a bizarre yet interesting thing to try and make.  It helped that there seemed to be a lot of positive feedback for the cake from followers of the blog. 

And that's how I ended up with this cake recipe.  As for the buttons for decoration, I knew I was going to be doing that regardless since she loves buttons and I have a button mould, albeit it a tiny one that only makes three buttons at a time.  There are 42 buttons in total.  They also were originally standing up in the middle but then they wouldn't fit in my carry container so I had to smoosh them down a bit.  Ah well.

I've never worked with avocados before.  They are such a weird fruit!  I was having a good giggle as I peeled them and scooped out the inside.  I have no idea if mine were ripe enough but they were a bit of a pain to mash up.  I probably could have done with putting them in a proper blend rather than using a stick one, but alas my one broke.

I was really nervous about this cake since it was a bit of a wild card.  I was dreading it being awful, despite all the good reviews on Joy's blog.  I shouldn't have worried though.  It went down really well.  The fiancé's Mum thought the buttercream tasted like a strange, cherry marzipan.  Her Mum, who was there too, did not agree.  They both ate their slices though and the chocolate cake got lots of compliments.  Very moist and you wouldn't know it was made with avocado.  Personally I think the aesthetic left a little to be desired.  The buttercream did spill over edges slightly and in an uneven manner so it looked a bit messy.  The buttons were also a bit dulled because I did that awful thing of putting them in the fridge to set but that's because I had so many to do and no patience at all.  Even with putting them in the fridge it took me three hours to do them all.  I will say though, I love the wonderful, bright green colour of the buttercream.  I think it looks amazing against the chocolate cake.

Recipe - adapted from Joy the Baker

Makes 2 x 20cm/8inch round cake layers

Cake:

• 400g/14oz plain flour (I used gluten free)
• 60g/2oz cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 400g/14oz granulated sugar
• 60ml/2fl.oz vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
• 70g/2.5oz soft avocado meat (about 1 medium avocado)
• 500ml/17.5fl.oz water
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease two 20cm/8inch round cake tins.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.  Stir together.
3. Scoop the avocado meat into a medium bowl and mash thoroughly.  You may want to blitz it in a blender (I used a stick blender to give me a hand).
4. Once thoroughly mashed, mix in the oil, water, vinegar and vanilla extract.
5. Add the sugar to the wet ingredients and mix well.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry and whisk by hand until smooth.
7. Distribute the batter evenly between the two cake tins.
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes until cakes are risen, slightly springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Allow the cakes to cool in their tins before transferring to a wire rack.  Let them cool completely before frosting.

Buttercream:

• 200g/7oz avocado meat (2-3 avocados worth, ideally very ripe ones)
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 450g/1lb icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put the avocado meat in a bowl (leave out any bits that have brown spots).  Mash thoroughly. (Again, I blitzed mine with a hand blender.  It probably wasn't as ripe as it could have been.)
2. Beat the lemon juice into the avocado meat until it lightens in colour and is smooth (though I had a few bits of avocado floating round in mine but don't think it really mattered in the long run).  You might want to use an electric whisk.
3. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, beating in after each addition.
4. Add vanilla extract and beat in.

Assembly:

• 100g/3.5oz dark vegan chocolate (optional for decoration)

1. Place one cake round on a plate.
2. Cover the top of it with half the avocado buttercream, smoothing it out with a spatula.
3. Place the other round on top and press down gently.
4. Cover the top of this one with the remaining buttercream and smooth out.
5. If making chocolate decorations, melt the chocolate in a glass bowl placed over a pan of gently simmering water. 
6. Pour chocolate into moulds (may have to be done in batches) and allow to set.
7. Decorate.

Strawberry and Cream Cake

Easter is the fiancé's mum's New Year.  The clocks have gone forward, making the days longer; the weather is usually brighter and warmer and she can put up the summer curtains.  She also insists on having her children over for lunch, and now me by extension.  Being the avid baker I was charged with dessert and could make whatever I wanted.  Well I really didn't know what I wanted to do except that it would be something I'd not made before.  And vaguely spring/summery, to reflect the changing seasons.

I had a look through my cupboards to see what I had and see if it sparked any ideas.  As often happens when I open my cupboard, something fell out: one of the packets of freeze dried strawberry powder I had bought to use in my quest for strawberry extract alternatives.  Well there was an idea.  A strawberry cakes.  Strawberries are quite a summery thing.  And what else does one think of when they have strawberries?  Why, cream of course.  There.  Strawberry and cream cake.  That should be fine.

However, I wasn't sure how to go about adding the strawberry powder to a cake.  Would it be like with cocoa where you supplement some in place of flour?  Should I rehydrate it first?  Obviously the safest answer was to look it up and see if I could find a recipe that used it.  Which clearly I did find and it was a vegan recipe too, which is cool.  Of course I ruin that by covering it with cream.  As far as I can tell, from this recipe and from comments on various forums, you just add the powdered strawberry to a white cake recipe, with a little liquid of some kind, like strawberry extract or reduced strawberry purée.  This recipe uses strawberry extract as its liquid, which I cannot get here in the UK (hence why I have my quest).  So I made a strawberry purée, since I had strawberries in my fridge (I bought them to use for decoration but didn't end up going with that idea in the end).  

I may have got a bit carried away with icing this cake.  Ages ago I saw several pictures of cakes covered in buttercream roses.  They all looked so pretty and though this cake is not particularly tall I wanted to give it a try.  And just to make it a bit more interesting, I wanted to have a gradient colour change running from the centre to the base.  Whipping the cream and icing the cake took about 40 minutes as a result but the final outcome did look so beautiful.  I was very proud.

The overall result was a very beautiful cake that tasted like strawberries with cream.  The only problem though is that it had quite a close texture and as a result was a little 'gummy'.  The fiancé said it was a bit like a fruit roll, only better.  Despite that though, everyone seemed to really enjoy it and a vast majority of it got eaten.

Recipe - adapted from My Vegan Cookbook

Whilst the cake itself is a vegan recipe, my decision to use cream to decorate it means I've essentially ruined that.  So if you want a fully vegan cake, use a vegan alternative for the cream.  A lot of places I've seen use whipped coconut cream. 

• 290g/10oz plain flour
• 180g/6.5oz caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1.25 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 75g/3oz freeze dried strawberry powder
• 330ml/11.5fl.oz water
• 30g/1oz butter
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 115g/4oz strawberries
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Pink food colouring
• 450ml/16fl.oz double cream (or coconut cream for fully vegan cake)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line 20cm/8inch round cake tin.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and freeze dried strawberry powder.
3. Blitz the strawberries to a purée and run through a sieve into a saucepan.
4. Reduce the strawberry purée over a medium heat until you are left with about half.  You should have about 1.5 tbsp worth of purée.
5. Melt the butter.
6. In a small bowl, combine the water, oil, melted butter, lemon juice, strawberry purée and a few drops of food colouring.
7. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together gently with a spoon until combined.  
8. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level out.
9. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
10. Allow to sit in the tin for about 10 minutes and then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.
11. Whip the cream until you get stiff peaks.
12. Spoon about a quarter into a piping bag fitted with a large closed star nozzle.  
13. First pipe a large rose in the centre of the cake, then pipe a circle of smaller roses around it.  It doesn't matter if there are gaps between roses, fill these by holding the nozzle perpendicular to the cake and squeezing out just a little cream to create a small flower shape.
14. Squeeze any cream left in the bag back into the bowl and add a few drops of pink colouring.  Fold in carefully so you have a slightly pinkish cream.  If there are obvious streaks of colouring running through it doesn't matter since it adds to the effect.
15. Pipe another circle of roses around the outside of the first circle.  These ones should be pretty close to the edge.  Fill any gaps between the roses in the same manner as before.
16. Repeat step 14.  You should now have a darker pink cream.
17. Pipe roses around the side of the cake and fill in all gaps along the top edges, base and between roses with small cream flours.