So could I really include a recipe for carrot cake and not also include a recipe for my other favorite cake? I mean, I could, but that would just be cruel. I love this cake. It's is a great vegan cake that tastes not-so-vegan. Especially with the dark, dark ganache frosting. This isn’t the sickly sweet frosting of our childhood, but an intense dark chocolate experience. Make sure to use the best dark chocolate that you can. I really do love Sunspire's Grain Sweetened Chocolate, but unless you know Moonbeam and meet him in the dark alley behind the health food store, that stuff can be hard to find. So use some other yummy dark chocolate. I would mention Scharffen Berger here, but after the whole Hershey's-buy-out-now-closing-the-Berkeley-facility-and-having-huge-wholesale-order-minimums thing, they're kind of dead to me. So I'm not going to mention them at all. Enjoy the cake and have lots of fun baking!


Chocolate Cake

Cake:
1 1/2 cups soy milk or milk
2 1/2 cups maple syrup
3/4 cups oil
3 tbs arrowroot or corn starch dissolved in 3 tbs water
1 tbs vanilla
2 3/4 all purpose flour or whole spelt flour
1 1/8 cups cocoa powder
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups hot coffee or boiling water

Chocolate Ganache Frosting:
2 cups soy milk or cream
1 lb dark chocolate or chocolate chips

1) Preheat your oven to 350° F and grease three 8 inch cake pans
2) In a medium bowl whisk together the soy milk, maple syrup, oil, arrowroot mixture, and vanilla.
3) In a separate large bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk the dry ingredients while slowly add the wet ingredients until all the liquid is added and the batter is smooth. This batter is very thin.
4) Whisk the coffee into the batter and immediately pour into the cake pans. Bake the cake for about 45 minutes at 350° F or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake has pulled away from the sides.
5) Heat the soy milk or cream over a low heat in a medium saucepan taking care not to let it burn.
6) While the soy milk is heating break up the chocolate into 1/4 inch pieces and place in a medium bowl with high sides.
7) Pour the hot soy milk  over the chocolate and whisk the mixture until it’s smooth. Place the ganache in the fridge to set.
8) Once the cake is completely cool and the ganache has completely set, invert the cakes onto separate plates. Frost the top of each layer and layer the cakes. Then frost the sides. This cake looks absolutely beautiful if you cover the sides with chocolate shavings, broken chocolate, or cacao nibs.

Serves 12