I'm just going to lay it out there. I don't care if you have the strictest New Year's Resolutions known to man, sometimes you need cake. Like, you must eat cake now or else the world will end. That has been me this week. A teething baby, a toddler who is notorious for stealing all of your caffeinated beverages and then running around the house at full speed for the rest of the day, a barrage of laundry, dishes, etc. etc. etc. Sometimes you just need cake. And then you get a stroke of genius and decide to use Blood Orange Olive Oil in your favorite Chocolate Cake recipe and BAM! (does Emeril still do that?) you have magic Blood Orange Chocolate Cake that completes you. I'll come back to that.
Up here at Cask & Grove we have a few new things. We got in a shipment this week of Northern Hemisphere olive oils. We have an Organic California Arbequina, Spanish Melgarejo Picual and Melgarejo Koroneiki, and a Portuguese Cobrancosa. Hopefully we will replace all of our May 2016 with this November 2016 crop by the end of the week. Some of those Southern Hemisphere oils will be marked down, so come and get them while you can! I'm very excited to have these few Northern Hemisphere oils in our midst and we should be getting more in as the season progresses, so I'll keep you updated.
By the way, thank you for entertaining my baby when I bring her up to the store in the afternoons. She has been pretty tolerant, but I know some days she is fussier than others. Thanks for bearing with us!
We are very nearly out of the Baklouti Green Chili Oil. We'll get more, don't worry, but it may still be a few weeks. They crush this one in Tunisia and it still hasn't arrived in port in California. Soon, friends. Soon. One pound of olive oil per 1.6 pounds of fresh green chilies? It's intense and green and lovely. If you have never tried it, believe me, it is worth the wait.
After you guys wiped us out over Christmas (hard the believe that was less than a month ago and thank you all for your support of our small business), I decided that we should keep our Charlito's Cocina hand made sausages around. I really love them. It's a small, artisan operation and those guys are super nice and easy to work with and they make one heck of a salami, so we're keeping them! The also recently got a sweet write up in Bon Appetit. I ordered the Salami Picante (the one featured in the article), which has an impressive spicy kick and the Campo Seco, which is truly a salami purist's dream. The only ingredients are: Heritage Breed Pork, Hand Raked Sea Salt, Evaporated Cane Juice, Celery Juice Extract, Starter Culture, and Natural Casing. Pure joy!
I think that's all the store news. Back to the cake. I don't often use the Blood Orange Olive Oil in my day to day cooking, or even as a favorite salad oil. But I love to bake with it. You can make these scones with it or use it as the oil/butter needed in pancakes, waffles, or sugar cookies. It really is a great substitute to have around. It also happens to be the Flavor of the Month, so it's 20% off!
This is a delightfully easy recipe that you kind of can't mess up. I guess you could burn it, but there isn't much I can do about that. I would never go so far as to say that this cake is "healthy", but it does at least try to have some redeemable qualities. First, it's vegan, so no eggs or dairy. (You could, of course, use regular milk instead of the almond milk and then it would no longer be vegan.) Second, it has a fair bit of applesauce in it to cut back on the amount of oil needed. And third, the oil that you need is Blood Orange Olive Oil, which is quite a bit tastier than Canola Oil.
No special equipment is needed for this cake. Two bowls, a whisk, and two cake pans (or one rectangular pan) are all you need to get the job done. I like doing things the old fashioned way. Mix all the wet ingredients in one bowl, all the dry ingredients in the other bowl, whisk them together until they're smooth. Pour them into the greased cake pans and bake them until the middle is set and a toothpick comes out clean when you poke it into the middle. Let the cakes cool on a wire rack.
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| Don't forget to lick the bowl clean. |
Enjoy, my friends, and see you soon.
Cheers!
Andrea
Blood Orange Chocolate Cake (Revised)
Adapted from Minimalist Baker
1 1/2 c. Unsweetend Almond Milk (or Soy Milk or Milk Milk)2 tsp. White or Apple Cider Vinegar
1 1/4 c. (307 g.) Unsweetend Applesauce
1/2 c. Brewed Coffee
2/3 c. (160 ml) Blood Orange Olive Oil
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 c. (320 g.) All Purpose Flour
1 1/3 c. (266 g.) Cane Sugar
1 c. (96 g.) Cocoa Powder
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
Frosting
1/2 c. Earth Balance Vegan Butter (or regular Butter, if you want), room temperature
1 1/2 c. Powdered Sugar
1/2 c. Cocoa Powder
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2-3 Tbsp. Almond Milk
1 Tbsp. Blood Orange Olive Oil
1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray two 9-inch cake pans. Or I suppose you could use a rectangular pan, but your cooking time may vary.
2. Pour the Almond Milk and vinegar into a large mixing bowl and let it sit for a few minutes (it will turn into vegan buttermilk). Add the applesauce, coffee, oil, and vanilla to the bowl and whisk until foamy.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Now pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth.
4. Divide the batter into your two prepared cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until when you stick a toothpick into the center, it comes out clean. Let cool.
5. While cake is cooling, make your frosting. Put everything in a bowl and whisk it, or put it in a food processor and pulse until it's smooth. I don't follow an exact recipe for frosting. If it's too thick, add a slash more Almond Milk (or leftover coffee), if it's too thin, add more powdered sugar. Taste as you go and you'll get it right.
6. Once cakes are cooled generously frost them, putting one layer or frosting between the cakes and then coating the whole outside in sweet glory.
