Monday, May 26, 2008

Carob Cake with Carob Fudge Frosting

Before I realized that food colorings should not be used, I had made red velvet cake for my husband on his birthday. Red velvet cake is a red chocolate cake. Seemed fitting for my sweetie who was born on February 14th. I have a fondness for this cake as I remember a wonderful aunt of mine (who reminds me of a professional "homemaker" I know) serving it along with other homemade cookies and treats she loves to serve at family gatherings. Ah, memories again related to food... (I have heard of a red velvet cake that uses, get this, beets to give it a red color instead of chemical food coloring.)

We have small birthday celebrations at our house. I make a family favorite cake. I found the recipe in a old edition of a La Leche League cookbook (compared to some cookbooks, this is actually very vegetarian friendly). Usually I find that I have to adjust recipes to make it without dairy or eggs, but this is pretty much straight out of their book. It's easy and I've been using it for years. These recipes are not changed to use carob instead of cocoa - the original recipes really do call for carob powder.

Carob Cake

3 cups whole wheat flour (I've used other whole grains)
2/3 cup honey (or 1 cup brown sugar-LLL option)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup carob powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons vinegar
2/3 cup oil
2 cups water
1 cup raisins, optional
1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Combine dry ingredients in bowl. Add wet ingredients. Blend well. Stir in raisins and nuts, if you like. Pour into two oiled 8x8 inch pans (I use two round cake pans). Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

The "frosting" I used this year was called...

Carob Fudge Frosting

Blend together in blender until very smooth:
3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chopped dates (I use whole pitted dates)
1/4 cup carob powder

Pour into bowl and add:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt

Stir well and chill. Yields: 1 1/2 cups

We all agreed that we love the combination of carob and peanut butter - Yum!

(You will notice that we use carob instead of chocolate. This is not because we do not like chocolate, but rather because it is a trigger for my husband's terrible migraine headaches. Yes, there is life without chocolate.)

PS: Did you know that desserts is "stressed" spelled backwards. So now I can remember how to spell desserts (sweet things to eat) and deserts (as in the Sahara Desert). I've always had trouble figuring that out. So a sweet treat could be just the thing to share with someone you love to help alleviate stress!

3 comments:

Loretta said...

I made this again yesterday and found some tips for this recipe.

For any cake:

After you oil the pan, use a spoon or two of the dry flour mixture to "flour" the pan with. After adding the flour, shake it around and coat all sides of your pan, then tap any extra back into the dry flour mix bowl before proceeding with the recipe.

For the frosting:

I used my Vitamix for making this and found that you need to make at least one full recipe. I tried to halve the recipe and found it didn't mix up as well. Oh, and make sure there are no pits in the "pitted" dates. I found (and removed) one in the finished frosting. Thankfully it didn't break and was still whole.

Chef Shaun said...

Great recipe, lots of complements from where i work... I cut the oil to 1/2 c. and added more penut butter and a dash of gaur gum to the frosting. thanks for sharing!!!

Loretta said...

Glad you liked it. I'm glad that others appreciate the recipes. Come again.