Chocolate Ginger Kombucha Cake – Bake Off Special!

It’s that time of year again, the GBBO final! It’s been an amazing season and we’re feeling well and truly inspired to get our bake on… We’ve teamed up with the lovely ladies at Healthy Twists to create this wonderfully rich and decadent chocolate cake infused with our zingy Ginger Kombucha.

The recipe is vegan and gluten free and the addition of our tasty kombucha helps to create a light moist sponge that’s layered between the dark chocolate icing. It’s a real show-stopper!

Ingredients

• 350ml unsweetened almond milk
• 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 240g gluten free plain flour
• 200g cacao powder
• 450g light brown soft sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200g dark chocolate, melted
• 150g coconut oil, melted
• 350ml Equinox Organic Ginger Kombucha

Chocolate icing

• 600g 70%+ dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 400ml boiling water
• 20 ice cubes
• 3 large pieces of crystallised ginger, finely sliced

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C. Line 4 x 18cm cake tins with baking paper and grease the sides with coconut oil.
2. Add the almond milk to a jug with the apple cider vinegar, stir and set to one-side while you prepare the rest of the cake.
3. Sift the flour, sugar and cacao powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the baking powder and stir together to combine.
4. In a saucepan, gently melt together the coconut oil and dark chocolate. Remove from the heat and set to one-side.
5. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the almond milk and apple cider vinegar mix. Then pour in the melted coconut oil and dark chocolate and the vanilla extract. Stir thoroughly to combine. Finally pour in the Equinox Ginger Kombucha and stir until the cake mix is silky and smooth.
6. Divide the chocolate ginger cake mix evenly between the 4 cake tins.
7. Place 2 tins onto the middle shelf of the oven and the other 2 tins onto a lower shelf. Bake at 160°C for 25 minutes, until there is a light bounce in the centre of the cakes when pressed gently with a finger. The sponges do not have a big rise once baked. After 25 minutes remove the top 2 cakes to a wire rack. The cakes on the lower shelf may need to bake for a further 4 minutes on the middle shelf.
8. Remove the remaining 2 cakes from the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes before carefully turning the sponges out of the tins. Leave to cool fully on the wire wrack.

To make the single ingredient chocolate icing

1. You will need two mixing bowls – a medium sized bowl that is heat and microwave proof and that will fit inside a larger mixing bowl.
2. Add the roughly chopped chocolate to the medium sized mixing bowl. Pour over the boiling water and stir thoroughly until the chocolate has completely melted and becomes smooth.
3. Put the ice cubes into the second larger mixing bowl and sit the bowl with the melted chocolate directly on top and start to whisk. It will slowly start to thicken, once this starts remove the chocolate bowl from the ice. If the chocolate thickens too far and becomes stiff place the bowl in the microwave on a low heat for 10-15 seconds and stir.
4. Remove the chocolate bowl from the ice and use a palette knife to spread the icing onto the top of the first layer of cake, then place on top the next sponge layer and repeat until you have iced all 4 tiers of the cake. Spread more icing thinly around the sides of the cake and use a cake scraper or palette knife to cover the sides. To create a smoother surface, warm the palette knife/scraper in hot water.

Decorate the top of the cake with a scattering of sliced crystallised ginger.

To serve enjoy your slice of Chocolate and Ginger cake with the perfect accompaniment of a sparkling glass of Equinox Organic Ginger Kombucha.

Store the cake in an airtight container and eat within 3 days. Enjoy!

Recipe by Claire & Sarah from Healthy Twists.