Chocolate Balsamic Cake with Red Wine

For those of you who don't know me, I'll let you in on a little secret - I don't really love chocolate. But put a glass of red wine in front of me and suddenly I'm prepared to take the most hard-core chocoholic to the mat over the last piece of whatever's in the house that even hints of chocolate.

So when I came across this recipe for vegan chocolate cake from Amy over at Fragrant Vanilla Cake, I just about flipped. For all you dedicated vegans out there, your karmic reward is this incredible recipe that non-vegans would likely never bother to seek out: chocolate cake held together not by eggs, but by red wine. Yes. Seriously. Oh, and with a cherry on top: a couple of tablespoons of balsamico that pull double duty for adding flavor as well as working with the baking soda to make this puppy rise.

I have to admit, having been raised on deliciously buttery eggy cakes, I was totally skeptical about how this was going to turn out. But I was determined to try a vegan cake and this one sounded way too interesting to pass up. Still, I braced myself for it to be totally dry or exhibit some other kind of weirdness and just kept my fingers crossed that it would at least be "passable"- lest I endure a resounding chorus of "I-told-you-so's" from my family. So imagine my joyous surprise when I took the first bite of this gobsmacking goodness...go ahead, imagine it. If you're picturing a cartoon character with eyes bugging out in tune with a fire alarm and passing out with little pink hearts and stars circling my head...well, you're obviously as weird as I am, but you'd be spot on.

Incidentally, as much as I'd love to, I cannot take credit for the awesomely awesome term "gobsmacking" - I shamelessly stole it from PeaSoupEats, a cheeky vegan blogger in Cornwall who if you don't already know, you absolutely must. In fact, I highly recommend pecking around her delightful little blog whilst stuffing yourself with this delectable cake!


Chocolate Balsamic Cake with Red Wine 
Recipe adapted from Fragrant Vanilla Cake
Makes one 9-inch single layer cake*

*if you want a double-decker - which, now that I've tried it, I highly recommend - double the quantities below to make two cakes and sandwich some yumm-o frosting in between

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour (pastry flour works best, but naturally I didn't have any so I used regular wheat flour)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1 cup sugar (original recipe calls for maple sugar - use it if you have it!)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup red wine
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position rack in center of oven. Amy recommends lining the cake pan with parchment paper and coating the parchment paper (and pan sides) with nonstick spray. I didn't have any paper on hand (found out the hard way a few months ago that wax paper is NOT a viable substitute) so I just used non-stick spray on a standard 9" non-stick cake pan and it worked fine.

Anyhoo. Onwards...

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl to blend well. Next, whisk oil, wine, and vanilla extract together in small bowl to blend well, then whisk into the flour mixture until well blended. And while the bottle is open, feel free to pour yourself a glass and toast yourself for endeavoring to bake something.

Whisk in the balsamic vinegar and stir quickly until fully combined. Transfer cake batter to prepared pan and bake cakes until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

Cool cake completely in pan on rack, about 1 hour. Cut around sides of pan to loosen. Turn cake out onto platter and peel off parchment paper (if you used it). Let your masterpiece cool completely before frosting.

Use your favorite frosting (there's a great one on the original recipe page that uses Tofutti cream cheese and tons more on Amy's site). You'll want to be generous with the frosting, not only because it's delicious but also because eggless cakes, whilst they can be surprisingly moist, do tend to be a little more delicate than their eggy cousins and will crumble more readily under pressure.

If you want to make it insanely decadent - go ahead, you deserve it - top it with some vegan caramel sauce to bliss yourself out completely.

Days later, I'm still seeing hearts and stars...

Sun-dried Tomato-Basil Risotto with Balsamico

Photo courtesy of La Vita Saporita

It was a close race, but this Sun-dried Tomato-Basil Risotto was the most requested this week. For those of you who voted for the Pumpkin-Parsley Risotto, stay tuned - it will get posted before the weekend. Promise.

But back to this ridiculously good risotto. The Bear was highly skeptical when he saw the ingredients on the counter and I have to admit, I wasn't expecting it to be all that interesting either. But I had just found this recipe (and I hadn't gone to the market to get anything else) so we tried it out.

Wow.

This risotto is amazing. I can't remember the last time we dropped so many F-bombs in the kitchen - and I mean that in the best possible way.

Sun-Dried Tomato-Basil Risotto with Balsamic Vinegar
Courtesy of La Vita Saporita
Serves 4

5 cups vegetable broth
2 small tomatoes, peeled and chopped (about 1-1/2 cups)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed
1-1/2 cups (250g) arborio rice
1 cup red wine
4-5 sun-dried tomatoes (about 3 oz), cut into bite size pieces
1-1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
20 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips (chiffonade)
2 oz goat cheese, crumbled (optional)

Pour the veggie broth into a saucepan and add the chopped tomatoes. Bring to simmer and reduce to warm, but don't take it off the heat. It's important that the cooking liquid is always hot to facilitate the starch release.

While that's happening, warm the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onion with a teaspoon of salt - this will soften the onion and keep it from browning. Then add the garlic and saute until soft.

Next, add the rice and stir with a wooden spoon until the rice is thoroughly coated and becomes translucent. Nicely toasted rice is another secret to great risotto.

Add in a cup of red wine (and pour one for yourself while you're at it) and stir until the liquid is absorbed. Then add a cup of the broth and tomatoes and stir. And stir. And sip. And stir some more.

When the broth has been absorbed, add another cup and keep stirring until the liquid has again been absorbed. Feel free to pour yourself another glass of wine. Call your mom. Make out with your husband. But whatever you do, keep stirring.

Continue adding the broth a cup at a time. When the rice starts to soften (test a couple of grains after 2-3 cups), stir in the sun-dried tomatoes then continue adding rest of the broth (a cup at a time) and stir-stir-stirring until the rice is al dente (tender but slightly firm in center).

When the rice is nice and creamy, stir in the last cup of broth along with the balsamic vinegar. When these have been mostly absorbed, remove from heat, add the chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. The traditional texture is all'onda (wavy). It should spread out easily, but not have a watery perimeter so be sure not to cook the liquid out completely.

Risotto should be served and eaten immediately or it will continue to cook itself in its own heat which will dry it out and make the grains too soft.

Spoon onto individual plates or bowls, garnish with the basil chiffonade (and a few crumbles of goat cheese if you like) and serve with the remaining red wine.

Buon appetito!