And such a strange one it is, too...Oh wait. Nope, it's not...actually strange. In fact, it'll probably be relatively typical of many posts. I do like experimentation, substitutions, new things, wacky things...yup. So here goes!
Tip for this one: Don't tell people what's in the cake before you serve it. Just so ya know.
This is one of the now almost-popular foodie trends of substituting black beans for flour! I've heard you can substitute black beans for eggs as well, but have not found a list of the ratios yet. We'll see.
Here's the recipe I used for the cake. I changed the baking time from 45 minutes to 20-30 minutes, and am planning on experiment with the amount of honey in the cake. The original recipe calls for just 1/2 cup, but we thought it could stand to be a little bit sweeter than that. (Yes, maybe our family just has too much of a sweet tooth...)
Anyway, I made two of these, layered them with our family recipe for chocolate-coffee-peanut butter frosting, and made a chocolate-coconut oil glaze for the top! So we made up for the lack of honey in the cake itself after all...:)
So once you look down the list of ingredients, you may notice that this recipe requires 5 eggs for just one layer--a number that I think is unnecessarily large. I mean sure, it makes it nice and moist, but...isn't there a better way? Never fear...there is more experimentation to come! :) I think this recipe will be tested sometime soon...
Oh, and by the way...this was my birthday cake. In case you were wondering. :)
Well, here it is:
Black Bean Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
5 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used special dark)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 Tablespoons instant coffee powder
1/2 cup honey
7 Tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
To prepare the cake pan:
Grease a 9" cake pan with butter, then dust with cocoa powder. Line pan with parchment paper cut to fit bottom of pan (This will help to prevent it from burning on the bottom, I hope...I didn't do it for mine, and then were a bit...well, burnt...on the very bottom.)
To prepare the batter:
In a blender, beat black beans until there are no lumps. Add 3 eggs, vanilla, salt, cocoa powder, baking powder, coffee, and baking soda, and blend, making sure to scrape down sides.
In a bowl, whisk together honey and butter. Add 2 eggs and whip until smooth.
Pour butter mixture into blender with bean mixture and blend until incorporated.
At this point, the batter should look glossy and smooth and very much like any traditional chocolate cake batter.
Pour batter into pan. Thump pan on the counter several times to smooth batter and dissipate air bubbles. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out relatively clean.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for ten minutes, invert onto a plate, and then turn over again onto a cooling rack.
Allow the cake to finish cooling completely on the rack -- the longer it cools, the better the texture will be.
Assembly:
Put the cooled cake on a plate large enough to serve it on. Frost with the coffee/chocolate/PB frosting, then pour the glaze over the top and sides. And there you go! :) I made mine a double layer, and just poured the glaze over the entire thing instead of both layers, but I'm sure it would be good with the glaze in the middle as well.
Coffee-Chocolate-Peanut butter Frosting:
Ingredients:
3 Tablespons melted butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
5 Tablespoons cup strong coffee
1 1/2 Tablespoons peanut butter
3/8 cup cocoa powder
Chocolate-coconut oil glaze:
(Originally from this site, with a few modifications)
Well, here it is:
Black Bean Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
5 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used special dark)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 Tablespoons instant coffee powder
1/2 cup honey
7 Tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
To prepare the cake pan:
Grease a 9" cake pan with butter, then dust with cocoa powder. Line pan with parchment paper cut to fit bottom of pan (This will help to prevent it from burning on the bottom, I hope...I didn't do it for mine, and then were a bit...well, burnt...on the very bottom.)
To prepare the batter:
In a blender, beat black beans until there are no lumps. Add 3 eggs, vanilla, salt, cocoa powder, baking powder, coffee, and baking soda, and blend, making sure to scrape down sides.
In a bowl, whisk together honey and butter. Add 2 eggs and whip until smooth.
Pour butter mixture into blender with bean mixture and blend until incorporated.
At this point, the batter should look glossy and smooth and very much like any traditional chocolate cake batter.
Pour batter into pan. Thump pan on the counter several times to smooth batter and dissipate air bubbles. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out relatively clean.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for ten minutes, invert onto a plate, and then turn over again onto a cooling rack.
Allow the cake to finish cooling completely on the rack -- the longer it cools, the better the texture will be.
Assembly:
Put the cooled cake on a plate large enough to serve it on. Frost with the coffee/chocolate/PB frosting, then pour the glaze over the top and sides. And there you go! :) I made mine a double layer, and just poured the glaze over the entire thing instead of both layers, but I'm sure it would be good with the glaze in the middle as well.
Coffee-Chocolate-Peanut butter Frosting:
Ingredients:
3 Tablespons melted butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
5 Tablespoons cup strong coffee
1 1/2 Tablespoons peanut butter
3/8 cup cocoa powder
Chocolate-coconut oil glaze:
(Originally from this site, with a few modifications)
Ingredients:
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/4 unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tablespoons honey
pinch of sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (optional)
Instructions:
Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over a low heat. It won’t take long for the oil to melt because it has a low melting point, melting at 76 degrees F (24 degrees C). Turn the heat off and stir in the cocoa powder and honey. Optionally, blend in the salt and vanilla. Let it cool to room temperature, or, to speed things up, place the saucepan in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes. (Since it's the middle of the summer in Oklahoma, and thus very warm in our busy kitchen, I didn't even need to use the stove.)
(I tried doubling this recipe and just pouring it over the top of the whole cake, but still have a little less than half of the recipe left over. Ice cream topping, anyone...? This does make the cool shell ice cream cover, in case you were wondering...:) And you can store it in the refrigerator for a few weeks. To use it again, simply reheat on low. Oh, and microwaving it isn't the best idea--supposedly, whenever you microwave coconut oil, you kill somethingorother in the oil that's supposed to be good for you.)
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/4 unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tablespoons honey
pinch of sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (optional)
Instructions:
Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over a low heat. It won’t take long for the oil to melt because it has a low melting point, melting at 76 degrees F (24 degrees C). Turn the heat off and stir in the cocoa powder and honey. Optionally, blend in the salt and vanilla. Let it cool to room temperature, or, to speed things up, place the saucepan in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes. (Since it's the middle of the summer in Oklahoma, and thus very warm in our busy kitchen, I didn't even need to use the stove.)
(I tried doubling this recipe and just pouring it over the top of the whole cake, but still have a little less than half of the recipe left over. Ice cream topping, anyone...? This does make the cool shell ice cream cover, in case you were wondering...:) And you can store it in the refrigerator for a few weeks. To use it again, simply reheat on low. Oh, and microwaving it isn't the best idea--supposedly, whenever you microwave coconut oil, you kill somethingorother in the oil that's supposed to be good for you.)
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