Chocolate Cranberry Orange Cake (vegan & grain-free)

Special thank you to Amore di Mona for sponsoring this post.

I hope you’re getting into a festive mood, slowing down for the end of the year and planning some lovely recipes to make. For sure we all deserve a peaceful end to the year. 

Today I’m sharing with you my final Christmas recipe, Chocolate Cranberry Orange Cake. Amore di Mona has challenged me to create vegan, grain-free and nut-free chocolate recipe and so I took on the challenge with this layer cake.

I have finally bought myself some cassava and tigernut flours I’ve been meaning to experiment with for a while and had a play with them this week. 

If you haven’t experimented with them, they do behave different to gluten-free flours and absorb quite a bit of liquid. The cake batter also looks different more separated once mixed. Hence I have added the tapioca flour for extra binding. The sponge is also more crumbly than one made with gluten-free flours so I have opted for apple sauce as well as flax eggs.

I’m pretty happy how it turned out, the flavour is wonderful and the texture is moist. It didn’t look anything like this at my first try!

You could also make the cake as 8″ one layer cake if you prefer and just frost the top.

The flavours are lovely and festive for this time of a year. I have decided to layer the cake with cranberry chia jam which works so well with chocolate and decorate it with chocolate ganache, fresh cranberries, orange slices, rosemary and edible gold powder. 

And if you’re looking for a grain-free and nut-free Christmas cake it’s a wonderful cake to treat yourself to.

Wishing you the most wonderful Christmas!

Much Love

Hana xx

Chocolate Cranberry Orange Cake (vegan & grain-free)

 

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Ingredients

• Layer cake:
• 110g cassava flour (1/2 cup)
• 70g tigernut flour (1/2 cup)
• 30g tapioca flour (1/4 cup)
• 30g cacao powder (1/4 cup)
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1tsp cinnamon
• ¼tsp cloves
• ¼tsp allspice
• pinch sea salt
• 75g rapadura sugar (1/2 cup)
• zest of 1 orange
• 2tbsp ground flaxseed + 6tbsp water
• 80ml apple sauce (1/3 cup)
• 80ml olive oil (1/3 cup)
• 120ml orange juice (1/2 cup)
• 2tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1tsp vanilla
• 
  
• Cranberry chia jam:
• 100g cranberries (1 cup)
• 60ml orange juice (1/4 cup)
• little orange zest
• 1tbsp maple syrup
• small cinnamon stick
• 1tbsp chia seeds
• 
  
• Chocolate ganache: make the night before
• 200g dark vegan chocolate (7oz) I've used Amore di Mona
• 240ml oat cream (1 cup)
• 1tbsp maple syrup (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350F)
2. Grease and line two 6" round cake baking tins.
3. Mix 2tbsp ground flaxseed with 6tbsp water and set aside to thicken.
4. In a large bowl whisk together cassava flour, tigernut flour, tapioca flour, cacao powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, salt and sugar. Add zest of 1 orange and set aside.
5. In a small bowl whisk together flax eggs, apple sauce, olive oil, orange juice, apple cider vinegar and vanilla.
6. Add the wet mix to the dry mix and mix until well combined. You should have muffin consistency. Add more orange juice or water if needed.
7. Spoon the mixture evenly into your prepared tins and level out the surface.
8. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven once ready and leave to cool down for 20 minutes before removing from the tins.
10. To make the cranberry jam place cranberries, orange juice, maple syrup and cinnamon stick into a pot and gently heat for about 10 minutes until cranberries have popped and are soft. Remove the cinnamon stick and mash the cranberries with a fork until smooth. Stir in chia seeds and leave to cool down for a bit before transferring into fridge to set.
11. Roughly chop the chocolate for the chocolate ganache and place into a medium bowl. Place the oat cream and maple syrup into a small pot and gently heat until boiling point. Pour over the chopped chocolate and stir until completely melted and smooth. Leave to cool down before placing into a fridge to set overnight into a spreadable consistency.
12. Once the cakes are completely cool, you can assemble the cake. Place the bottom layer onto a cake stand and spread with cranberry chia jam. Top with the second cake layer and using spatula frost the sides and top of the cake.
13. Pipe leftover ganache on top and decorate with fresh cranberries, orange slices and rosemary. Dust with gold edible powder.
14. Enjoy!

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