From: tara@socrates.umd.edu (Tara McDermott)
Subject: Re: black forest cake request
Organization: University of Maryland University College
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 23:08:44 GMT

As requested.... a blackforest cake that I am reposting:

From: poirier@bnr.ca (Daniel Poirier)
Date: 6 Aug 92 16:56:00 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg
Subject: Vegan: Black Forest Chocolate Cake.


Well, thanks to the suggestions coming from networld (when I asked about
margarine that tastes like petroleum jelly with a dash of 10W30 engine
oil), I have come up with a method of making this decadent cake without
the use of any eggs or dairy products. It's basically a rich dark
chocolate cake, sliced in half with black cherries in "sandwhich" between
the two halves, smothered with a delightfully fluffy coffee icing. The
icing used to rely heavily on butter to make it nice: the icing was meant
to be really not all that sweet, with a rich, strong coffee taste, and of
course the very buttery taste. Now that I can't stand the taste of butter
anymore, I hesitantly tried it with a fully vegan margarine (Fleischman
low sodium unslated - contains NO dairy!), and it came out better than
before! To thank everyone for their help and suggestions, here's the
recipe (approximate, I don't measure much of anything anymore):

Cake:
-----

3/4   cup oil 
3/4   cup  sugar (see note)
3     teaspoons egg-replacer + 4 tablespoons water
1/2   teaspoon natural vanilla extract
2     cups unbleached flour
1     cup good quality cocoa powder
1     teaspoon sea salt
2     teaspoon baking soda
3     teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 cup "fake sour cream" (see recipe below)

In a bowl, beat oil, bwron sugar, egg-replacer and water until the 
large grains of the brown sugar are all disolved and you get a smooth
textured mix. Blend in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the
flour, cocoa, salt, soda and baking powder (sift if required). Now, put
away your mixer and use a large wooden spoon or a spatula. You want to add
a bit of the dry stuff, mix well, then add a bit of the fake sour cream, 
mix well, etc... until you have used all of it. My grandmother used to
tell me to start with the flour mixture and end with the sour cream
mixture (I don't know why, but that's what I do, and it works great). 
Place in a nice big spring pan (mine is about 11 or 12 inches in diameter
and about 3 inches high) or use two smaller round cake pans. I bake
my big, single cake for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on many things. But
basically, bake it until you can insert a knife into its center and it
comes out clean (moinst but clean). Take the cake(s) out, and cool it
(them).


Icing:
------

1/2   cup vegan margarine
1-1/2 cup icing sugar (see note)
1/2   cup VERY VERY strong, freshly brewed coffee
1/2   teaspoon sea salt

In a bowl, mix margarine and icing sugar until you get a smooth mix. It
may be a little stiff. Add the salt to the piping hot coffee. Now, you
want to add the coffee very gradually, while beating the sugar mixture. 
The intent is to disolve the sugar without really melting the margarine.
You may not need all the coffee, but what you want to achieve is a very
smooth and fluffy texture (when you taste it, there should be none of the
"grittiness" icing sugar normally has). If you don't like the taste of
coffee, you can still make this icing. It simply needs some sort of a 
hot liquid to achieve the texture. Hot cocoa would definitely work o.k.,
as would many other flavours. Use your imagination, keeping in mind the
strong character of the chocolate/cherry combination.


Assembly:
---------

Lay the cooled cake in a plate and slice it horizontally; take the top
off; on the bottom half, spread your black (or Montmorency) cherry pie
filling (it's pretty easy to find vegan pie filling which uses no
gelatin - I normally use the light or diet stuff specifically because
it contains half the sugar, no gelatin and uses corn starch to thicken
it). Place the top half of the cake on top; spread the icing on the
top and sides of the completed cake. If you use two separate cake pans
(instead of one large), skip the slicing bit.


Note: I do not use white sugar (I'm not crazy about this cattle bone
      filtering system thing). I use a natural whole (brown) sugar. It's
      a little more difficult to find vegan icing (pulverized) sugar, but
      not impossible.

Note 2: This cake is decadent and obviously very rich in fats and sugar 
        (although it's not all that sweet, and most junk-cake eaters
         would find it sort of un-sweet compared to their Betty-Crockers
         mix ;-)
        So, be warned, it can become addictive and is not necessarilly all
        that good for you.

Note 3: You can make this even more decadent by doubling the ammount of
        icing you make. This was the suggestion I got when I made this
        cake last weekend, from a satisfied customer!



Fake Sour Cream:
----------------

I'd like to thank Christine Code from Vancouver, BC (another Cannuck! - Hi
there!) for posting the following recipe (duplicated without permission)
for "tofu sour cream". It works quite well thank you and made a great
cake.

Tofu - one quarter pound
Oil - one quarter cup
Lemon juice - one tablespoon
Sugar - one and one half tablespoon
Salt - half teaspoon

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Makes
about one and a quarter cups. (Recipe from Tofu Cookery, by Louise
Hagler).

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
 Daniel Poirier  * * * *  e-mail: Daniel.Poirier@x400gate.bnr.ca
 Standard disclaimers... - BNR does not own or share my opinion!
-----------------------------------------------------------------


-- 
Tara McDermott  tara@socrates.umd.edu  "Who'd've ever thought a VCR could
be more fun than poking someone in the eye with cuticle scissors, or or
or... slitting their throat with a carving knife!"  -  Psychos in Love

Newsgroups: rec.food.veg