Cakes, Chocolate, Desserts, Recipes

Gluten-free Vegan Chocolate Pomegranate Cakes

Posted by Simona Gluten Free on

Starting the New Year with a wish for knowledge, learning, and wisdom

This Rosh Hashanah my family celebrated the Holiday at home, though we had the good fortune to have our older son come home to share the festive meal with us. Tradition calls for a dessert with apples and honey, but he doesn’t usually like fruit based desserts. He is more a chocolate lover and he has always had a passion for pomegranates.

The Jewish tradition teaches that the pomegranate is a symbol of righteousness because it is said to have 613 seeds, which corresponds with the 613 mitzvot, or commandments, of the Torah. For this reason and others, it is customary to eat pomegranates on Rosh Hashanah.

Growing up I used to love pomegranate, or melograno. I would spend quite some time eating the ruby and juicy seeds of the seasonal fruit, and I would be the last one at the table, with all the other commensals staring at me. So it seems that I have passed the tradition for my oldest son. He is, in fact, the only one of my children to enjoy nibbling at the pomegranate seeds, no matter how tedious it might be.

Finding a dessert that would combine chocolate and pomegranate wasn’t too difficult, thanks to Google, though I wanted a recipe that would be dairy free as well. To my surprise I found these Chocolate Pomegranate Cakes which were easy to make completely vegan – substituting non dairy cream for the heavy cream.

ENJOY!

Gluten-free Vegan Chocolate Pomegranate Cakes
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Gluten-free Vegan Chocolate Pomegranate Cakes

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Recipe by Simona Gluten-free Course: Recipes, DessertDifficulty: Medium
Prep time

1

hour 

30

minutes
Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

  • For the cake

  • 312 g 312 Simona’s Flour Mix – 2 cups

  • 200 g 200 Granulated sugar – 1 cup

  • 60 g 60 Unsweetened cocoa powder – 2/3 cup

  • 1 tsp 1 Baking powder

  • 1 tsp 1 Instant coffee

  • 1/2 tsp 1/2 Salt

  • 265 g 265 Hot water – 1 1/3 cup

  • 160 g 160 Vegetable oil – 2/3 cups

  • 2 Tbsps 2 Vegetable Glycerin

  • 1 Tbsp 1 Vinegar

  • 1 tsp 1 Vanilla Extract

  • For the filling

  • 570 g 570 Pomegranate juice, divided – 2 cups and 3 Tbsps

  • 67 g 67 Granulated sugar – 1/3 cup

  • 3 Tbsps 3 Cornstarch

  • For the Chocolate glaze

  • 180 g 180 Silk Dairy-Free Heavy Whipping Cream Alternative – 3/4 cup

  • 1 Tbsp 1 Lyle’s Golden Syrup – or corn syrup

  • 170 g 170 Dark chocolate – I used Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels

  • 3 Tbsps 3 Pomegranate arils

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350°. Line an 11×17-inch baking sheet with parchment paper and coat with nonstick spray.
  • Prepare the filling
  • Combine 480 gr (2 cups) of pomegranate juice and the sugar in a saucepan. Boil the liquid over high heat until reduced to 1½ cups, about 10 minutes.
  • Combine cornstarch and remaining 90 g (3 Tbsps) of pomegranate juice in a small bowl, stirring until smooth. Whisk cornstarch mixture into reduced juice mixture in saucepan.
  • Boil the pomegranate filling to thicken and cook out the flavor of the cornstarch, 1–2 minutes. Transfer filling to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill.
  • Prepare the cake
  • Whisk together flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt in a large bowl until no lumps are visible.
  • Combine water, oil, glycerin, vinegar, and vanilla; whisk well into dry ingredients. Pour batter into prepared baking sheet, spreading to edges.
  • Bake the cake for 15/20 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack, then turn out onto another sheet of parchment paper. Peel original parchment paper from cake.
  • Trim uneven edges from the cake. Cut cake into thirds to form three equal rectangles – approximately 5″x10″.
  • Spread half of the chilled filling onto one cake layer. Top the cake layer and filling with a second cake layer and remaining filling; top with final cake layer. Freeze the cake for 30 minutes – it will make it easier to cut the cake in small squares.
  • Prepare the glaze
  • Heat the non dairy cream and golden syrup in a small saucepan over medium until mixture boils – or in a microwave oven for one and half minute. Place the chocolate in the bowl with the hot vegan cream. Let them stand for 3 minutes, then whisk until chocolate is melted and glaze is smooth.
  • Assemble the cakes
  • Cut the cake into 8 squares. Transfer them to a cooling rack placed over a parchment-paper lined baking sheet, leaving space between individual cake squares.
  • Pour approximately 3 Tbsps of glaze over each cake square; spread on tops and sides to cover completely. Garnish each cake square with pomegranate arils. Refrigerate until firm.

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