Mocha praline cake

Mokka-praliinikakku

This will be my penultimate recipe featuring Lauttasaari based Rost & Co.’s coffee.    I actually served this cake at my last pop-up brunch and it proved very popular, (one person couldn’t even believe it was vegan).  I have topped a dark chocolate cake with caramel vegan ‘butter’ icing and finished it with a crispy nut praline.  The coffee really brings out the chocolate flavour, giving the cake a rich decadent finish.

For this recipe I used Rost’s Ryhti filter coffee, which is a 50 % mixture of Guatemalan and  Columbian beans.  You can pick some up from their webshop here, or in selected K markets and at Kaffe centralen stores.

For my other recipes using Rost & co. coffee and for more information about them, check out my previous posts (Ten bean chilli sin carne , Espresso chocolate truffles and Vegan Tiramisu)

Mocha Praline Cake

Dry Ingredients:

100 g flour (gluten free if necessary)

100 g sugar

60 g cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

 

Wet Ingredients:

1 dl/ 100 ml plant based yoghurt

1 dl/ 100 ml oil

1 dl/ 100 ml strong coffee (I used Rost’s Ryhti blend)

0.5 dl/ 50 ml water

 

For the Praline:

100 g sugar

100 g nuts, roughly chopped ( I used pecans)

 

For the Icing:

400 g icing sugar, sieved

100 g plant based butter/ margarine

4 tbsp coconut sugar

2 tbsp plant based milk

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c.  and grease and line a 23 cm loose bottomed round tin.

Mix all your dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Similarly mix all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Quickly pour and mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, until you have a smooth batter.

Pour into your tin and bake in the oven for 25 – 30 mins, until an inserted skewer comes out clean.  Leave to cool.

Meanwhile make the praline.  Lightly oil a large square of baking parchment and set to one side.  Add the sugar to a heavy duty pan and place over over a low to medium  heat.  Stir occasionally until the sugar begins to melt.  Once this starts, stops stirring and leave the sugar to melt completely.  Once it is a nice rich caramel colour, carefully add the nuts and stir quickly to coat in the sugar.  Tip out on to the greased baking paper.  Leave to cool completely.  Once cool, break up the praline with a knife.  If the caramel is fairly thick, you may want to chop it a little thinner, so it is easier to eat.

To make the icing, add the sugar and butter/ margarine to a bowl or mixer.  Cream the sugar and butter together until smooth, light and fluffy.  Add the milk and coconut sugar and continue beating until the sugar has dissolved and the icing has turned a caramel colour.

Finally you can prepare your cake.  Remove from the tin and spread the icing over the top of the cake.  Decorate with the praline and serve.