Zoran is a new family friend who gave me this recipe for Christmas. His cake is made with sugar, egg whites, white flour and milk. I confess to having 1 small piece of his cake at Thanksgiving and 1 the day after. Although I did not appear to suffer any immediate ill effects, it was so delicious I decided to try my hand at making a reasonable facsimile that I could eat with more confidence on special occasions. If you cannot tolerate extra saturated fats, glucose or carob/cocoa- SKIP IT. Please. Have rosy baked apples instead.
Oil a 7x10” pan or use an 8x8” pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Serves 9.
(Double recipe for a 9x13” pan, using 3 large Granny Smith apples.)
Dry Ingredients:
½ cup mixed flours (using rice, oat, millet, coconut, chestnut, no more than ½ buckwheat, etc.)
½ cup carob powder
3 teaspoons Egg Replacer *(or add two Tablespoons ground flax seeds with 6 Tablespoons water soaked for 10 minutes until thick to the wet ingredients.)
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup xylitol *(or add slightly less agave nectar to wet ingredients) or stevia to taste
Wet Ingredients:
½ cup oil
¼ cup nut or rice milk
*agave nectar or soaked flax seeds as above
Shred in separate bowl:
2 large peeled Granny Smith apples
8 minced dried apricots
Thoroughly mix together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Blend liquids in a blender to frothy consistency. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients. Add in minced apricots, then shredded apple. Mix it all together lightly and quickly to keep as much air in the batter as possible. Pour into pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes (longer if using an 8X8 pan) or until edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. The 8x8 pan makes a wetter cake, the larger surface area pan makes a dryer cake. You decide which is best.
This cake tastes better the next day! Let it cool to room temperature and then cover to store in cool room or fridge. It has a very lovely moist and springy texture. Frost the day you serve it. Use ½ amount of Marion’s Chocolate Mousse thinned to a frosting, pg. 343.
Variations- I added a package of Cascadian Farms thawed frozen cherries to the batter. I used Knudsen’s black cherry concentrate rather than nut or rice milk to thin the frosting and used a dash of kirsch instead of vanilla. The taste of cherries came through loud and clear. Any fruit/liqueur would do for this variation. Raspberries? Strawberries? Yum.
Red Velvet Variation for Valentine’s Day:
same ingredients as above Except: I used 4 small, cored, unpeeled Macintosh apples plus one small beet. I shredded them in the food processor to further aerate the mixture. I used large forks or pasta servers to thoroughly toss the shredded mixture so the red of the beet is evenly distributed. Instead of apricots I used 8 Tablespoons of dried cranberries pre-sweetened with apple juice. I made a White Topping traditional for Red Velvet Cakes on pg. 304 in the book. Add a little grated beet or red fruit juice to soak the nuts, making pink frosting for the holiday if desired.