The idea for this cake came about when I was on one of my many diet phases.
Yes, I too have to pull back the reigns on my cake, cookie and cupcake intake as it gets way out of control sometimes.
It seems whenever I am sugar and fat deprived, my brain kicks in to ultra creative gear and I dream up amazing concoctions that I am just dying to sink my poor deprived teeth into.
Hence the name~ Death to Diets Cake.
This was a diet buster for sure and worth every last calorie! I can attest to that!
You can be sure at Gretchen’s Vegan Bakery the only thing we are killing is diets!
The new and improved version has been vegan-ized, coffee-ized, Oreo-ized and smaller sized! LOL
Single servings is where it’s at!
Ok, this is technically NOT a single serving, but I won’t tell if you don’t!
The best way to a guilt free dessert is simple: Don’t tell anyone you are making it so when you finish it all by yourself, you have no guilt because no one knew it existed in the first place!
In the video you will notice I used 2- 5″ Ring Molds to build the cake.
It is not necessary to build the cake in ring molds, but it does help.
You can of course build this cake traditional style (meaning just build it and ice it as you would any layer cake) however since this is such a tall cake, the ring mold will help to keep it all together, prevent leaning and flopping and well…. it’s kinda professional~ like.
It is so much easier to divide up your time that way so you are not spending what seems like a lifetime in the kitchen making this cake from start to finish.
Having the recipes prepared in advance is a lifesaver.
- For the Brownie Batter:
- Granulated Sugar 1½cup (300g)
- Coconut Oil or any vegetable oil you prefer 8 tablespoons (120ml)
- Natural or Dutch Process Cocoa Powder ⅔ cup (60g)
- Hot Water ⅔ cup (160ml)
- Ground Flax Seeds 6 Tablespoons (48g)
- Hot Water 8 Tablespoons (120ml)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoon (10ml)
- All Purpose Flour 1 cup + 6 Tablespoons (175g)
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Baking Powder 1¼ teaspoons
- Additional Recipes:
- Ganache Icing: 8 ounces vegan chocolate + 6 fl. ounces of soy milk
- ½ Recipe Fudge Icing
- ½ Recipe Best Vegan Buttercream Icing
- Cream Cheese Icing Recipe BELOW
- * we will be making some the buttercream mocha (optional) so you will also need instant coffee granules
- Chocolate sandwich cookies for garnish *optional
- For the brownie batter:
- Combine the ground flax and 8 Tbs hot water and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Combine the cocoa powder with the other measure of hot water (the ⅔ cup) and whisk smooth
- Add the melted coconut oil
- In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, flax mixture, cocoa paste mixture and vanilla extract and whisk smooth
- Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder and add to the chocolate mixture, whisk smooth
- Pour batter into greased cake pans or the ring mold as shown in the video
- Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for about 25 minutes or until they are springy to the touch when you gently press the centers
- Cool completely before assembling the cake as shown in the video
- To make the Mocha Icing dissolve 1 Tablespoon instant coffee granules with 2 tablespoons warm water, add to half of the buttercream recipe at the last stage of mixing, mix smooth
- For the Vegan ganache: Warm the chocolate and milk alternative together in a sauce pot stirring constantly until melted and smooth
FOR THE CREAM CHEESE ICING:
I like to add a small amount of vegan buttercream to my cream cheese icing, but this is completely optional!
If you have some on hand, try it!
If not, it’s perfectly prefect just as is!
- Vegan Cream Cheese 1 Tubs (1 cups) (237g)
- Vegan Butter 4Tablespoons(56g)
- Confectioner's Sugar 1 cups (120g)
- Vanilla Extract ½ teaspoon
- Vegan Buttercream 1 cup *optional
- Smooth cream cheese and the softened vegan butter BY HAND with a wooden spoon or spatula
- Add sifted confectioners sugar, mix evenly
- Add extract then add optional vegan buttercream icing
- Mix smooth
How can I convert this to non-vegan?
CLick here for original recipe
Hi,
In your ingredient list you list Hot Water ⅔ cup (160ml and Hot Water 8 Tablespoons (120ml).
But in the instruction steps you say “Combine the ground flax and 4 Tbs hot water and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken. Combine the cocoa powder with the other measure of hot water (the ⅓ cup) and whisk smooth”
The ingredients and instruction amounts are different,
What are the right measurments?
Thanks,
Petrouchka
Hi Thankyou so much, it seems I had doubled the recipe in the ingredients list, but for got to double it in the instructions, so the 2/3 cup & 8 Tbs is correct Ive updated it now thankyou!
Death to Diets or Death to my Liver?! Looks awesome.
Wow, wow, wow.
Gretchen you are a DREAM!
I can’t thank you enough for sharing your masterpiece recipes, I tried your Opera cake last month and managed to persuade a group of non-veeg Frenchies that vegan baking is just as good as the patisseries in Paris.
Now made this mammoth over the past 3 days for a friend’s bday, again non-vegan europeans, who were SHOCKED at how good this was! They were literally saying ‘how is this so creamy & rich without any dairy?!’
I subbed the buttercream for your Swiss one as I’m addicted – takes me about 2hrs total with an electric hand whisk, but soooo worth it for that beautiful airy texture!
One thing to note is that when I first made the Swiss Buttercream coffee flavour it did start to separate and lose some of its stability, maybe the water content was too high. This time however, when making the mocha I added it super slowly into the buttercream (no more than 1 tsp at a time) and also when it had cooled and solidified a little which caused no separation – Hope this tip helps some people!
Can’t wait to try more of your goodies 😀
awesome thank you so much for the comment! 🙂