I had originally made these Shamrock decorated vegan Chocolate Mint cakes for St Patricks Day early this year, but they seemed to have been overlooked by many of my readers as I had just got back into blogging, so I thought I would take the opportunity to re-post it again and submit it to Victoria from A Kick at the Pantry Door. Victoria is hosting this months We Should Cocoa - a monthly chocolate challenge created by Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog and Chele of Chocolate Teapot. Victoria has chosen mint as her special ingredient.
I have to admit I was going to make the this very same cake but instead of adding mint syrup to it, I thought I would press an after eight thin mint chocolate into the batter. I changed my mind due to time constraints, but that doesn't mean I won't try it next time. I surely will and recommend you do so too.
Anyway, my husband dubbed these cakes as Father Ted's chocolate cake. For those of you unfamiliar with this reference, here's a link to the hugely successful Irish comedy show Father Ted shown by Channel 4. I had some green ready to roll icing , so I used some of this to decorate the cake with shamrock, but of course that is optional.
Chocolate Mint Cake (or Chocolate After Eight Mint Cake)
Makes 8 x 3 inch round cakes
Ingredients
30g cocoa powder
180g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
165g brown sugar
200ml strong brewed coffee, cooled
100ml vegetable oil
3 tablespoons of mint syrup (8 x After Eight Thin Mints)
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
Optional: Ready to roll green icing
Optional: Icing sugar for dusting
Method
Heat the oven to Gas Mark 5. Oil an 8 inch round baking tin or 8 round/oval cake tins lined with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the sugar. In a small bowl, combine the coffee with the oil, mint syrup *(see note below if not using mint syrup) and whisk. Then beat the liquid into the dry ingredients. Then quickly stir in the vinegar.
Pour the batter into the prepared tins and bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until a toothpick in the centre of the cake comes out clean. These are better served the following day.
*If not using mint syrup and using After Eight Mint Thins, then press these into the batter, so well covered just before baking.
The following day, roll out green icing and use a shamrock cookie cutter for decoration and top cakes. Sprinkle with additional white icing sugar.
A rather quick blog post to wish my readers, especially those of Irish ancestry and heritage a Happy St Patricks Day.
I had originally planned to make Chocolate and Guinness Cake, but as some of you may know, Guinness is neither vegan or vegetarian as it uses isinglass (fish bladder) in the filtering process. I think there are other alternatives for both vegans and vegetarians, but I have to admit I have not done my research in this area, so if anyone knows of a suitable alternative for future baking, please do let me know. Anyway, instead I decided to make a vegan Chocolate Cake flavoured with mint syrup.
I had some green ready to roll icing left over from Christmas (to top my mince pies with holly leaves), so a couple of days ago I used the last of it to decorate these cake to make them more appropriate for St Patricks weekend with shamrock. If it wasn't Irish enough with the shamrock , my husband dubbed them further as 'Father Ted's Chocolate Mint Cake'. For those of you unfamiliar with this reference, here's a link to the hugely successful Irish comedy show Father Ted shown by Channel 4.
These little round cakes were rather popular, so popular that I had to make another batch for Saturday. I have to admit the mint was very subtle, so I upped the quantity to 3 tablespoons for the second batch - much better.
Father Teds Chocolate Mint Cake
Makes 8 x 3 inch round cakes
Ingredients
30g cocoa powder
180g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
165g brown sugar
200ml strong brewed coffee, cooled
100ml vegetable oil
3 tablespoons of mint syrup
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
Optional: Ready to roll green icing
Optional: Icing sugar for dusting
Method
Heat the oven to Gas Mark 5. Oil an 8 inch round baking tin or 8 round/oval cake tins lined with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the sugar. In a small bowl, combine the coffee with the oil, mint syrup and whisk. Then beat the liquid into the dry ingredients. Then quickly stir in the vinegar.
Pour the batter into the prepared tins and bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until a toothpick in the centre of the cake comes out clean. These are better served the following day.
The following day, roll out green icing and use a shamrock cookie cutter for decoration and top cakes. Sprinkle with additional white icing sugar.
