Chocolate Gingerbread Mini Cakes
"These are lovely, moist gingerbread spiced chocolate cakes filled with luscious chocolate ganache frosting. They’re gluten-free, vegan and tree nut-free so everyone will be able to enjoy these and I promise you they will be one of the best chocolate cakes that they have ever tasted.
I’ve used oat cream in the ganache to avoid using coconut cream, but if that is a problem for you, use another vegan cream or coconut cream in here. Oat cream has a single cream consistency so if you’re using coconut cream you can use little more because it sets more solid in the fridge. I always leave it set overnight.
For the decoration, I’ve used fresh cranberries and rosemary sprig. You could also use sugared cranberries if you prefer. For the snow I’ve blended some desiccated coconut, it works so well resembling the snow." - Chef Hana
Serves: 8 three layer mini cakes or 12 two layer mini cakes
Ingredients
95g brown rice flour (3/4 cup)
70g buckwheat flour (1/2 cup)
70g sunflower seeds (1/2 cup), ground into flour consistency
30g tapioca flour (1/4 cup)
30g cacao or cocoa powder (1/4 cup)
100g rapadura sugar (3/4 cup)
1½tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp ginger
1tsp cinnamon
⅛tsp nutmeg
⅛tsp cloves
pinch sea salt
3tbsp ground flaxseed + 9tbsp water
80ml apple sauce (1/3 cup)
80ml olive oil (1/3 cup)
60ml molasses (1/4 cup)
2tsp apple cider vinegar
60ml hot water (1/4 cup) + more as needed
Chocolate ganache: make the night before
220g dark vegan chocolate (7.7oz) I've used Amore di Mona
240ml oat or maple cream (1 cup)
1tbsp maple syrup (optional)
Decoration:
fresh cranberries
rosemary sprigs
blended desiccated coconut or confectioners sugar for snow
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350F)
Grease and line a 25 x 35cm Swiss roll tin with baking paper.
Mix 3tbsp ground flaxseed with 9tbsp water and set aside to thicken.
In a large bowl whisk together brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, ground sunflower seeds, tapioca flour, cacao powder, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt.
In a small bowl whisk together flax eggs, apple sauce, olive oil, molasses, apple cider vinegar and water.
Add the wet mix to the dry mix and mix until well combined. Add extra water 1tbsp at the time to achieve pourable muffin consistency. I've used 2tbsp more in my mix.
Pour the mixture onto the lined tin and smooth out the surface.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean. Try not to overbake it.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool down.
Once cooled using 2" round cookie cutter cut out 25 shapes.
Spoon ganache into a piping bag fitted with large star nozzle, pipe on top of the cakes and layer them on top of each other. You can create two or three layer cakes or a mix of both.
Chocolate ganache:
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 pipeable consistency. It should be perfect consistency for piping but if it's too hard leave it at room temperature for a little while to soften.
Decorate with cranberries and rosemary sprigs.
Blend some desiccated coconut and sprinkle on top and around the mini cakes to resemble snow.
Enjoy!
Notes
You can use oat cream in the ganache to avoid using coconut cream, but if that is a problem for you, use another vegan cream like maple cream or coconut cream in here. Oat cream has a single cream consistency so if you’re using coconut cream you can use either less chocolate or little more cream because it sets more solid in the fridge. With maple cream add more maple syrup until it has a shiny versus dull luster when mixed together with the chocolate which can include up to a 1 to 1 proportion of chocolate to maple cream.