Cookbook:Chocolate Cake with Coconut Topping (Vegan)

This recipe is for a vegan chocolate cake with a coconut crumble topping.

Wet ingredients

 * 200 g margarine, very soft
 * 400 g white granulated sugar
 * 75 g dried grated coconut
 * Zest of a lemon or grated ginger
 * 250 ml soy milk, cold

Dry ingredients

 * 750 g flour
 * 150 g soy flour
 * 2 sachets (40 g) baking powder
 * 6 pinches vanilla powder
 * 1 teaspoon cinnamon
 * 2 teaspoons salt
 * 100 g unsweetened cocoa powder

Add-ins
Either:
 * 450 ml soy milk
 * 2 glasses (500 g) cranberries or lingonberries

or:
 * 700 ml soy milk
 * 2 small apples, cut into small pieces

Topping

 * 200 g dark chocolate couverture
 * Grated coconut

Procedure

 * 1) Beat all wet ingredients together for 10 minutes until creamy, adding the soy milk gradually to the other ingredients.
 * 2) Combine all dry ingredients, then sift loosely to aerate and remove lumps.
 * 3) Preheat the oven to 200°C.
 * 4) Add the wet mixture and the add-ins to the dry mixture. Stir briefly until smooth. Do not over-mix, since this will cause the batter to deflate and become tough.
 * 5) Spread the batter in a large baking pan lined with baking paper.
 * 6) Bake for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven, and let the cake continue cooking in the residual heat for 15 minutes. Let cool.
 * 7) Unmold the cake from the pan, and remove the baking paper.
 * 8) Melt the chocolate couverture over a double boiler. Spread the melted chocolate on top of the cake, then sprinkle with grated coconut.
 * 9) Sprinkle the still soft couverture with grated coconut.

Notes, tips, and variations

 * Do not overmix the batter once the wet and dry mixtures have been combined. This will prematurely release all the CO2 and make the cake tough.
 * The cake becomes greasy if it contains too much margarine relative to the other ingredients. Margarine is heavy and does not give stability (unlike flour).
 * The cake can collapse if you take it out of the oven too early. If you wait too long, it gets too dry or even burns. If you wait too short or if the baking temperature is too low, it will not be cooked through.
 * The detailed recipe version is available on the homepage of Markus Müller: http://www.mm65.de/VeganerSchokoladenkuchen.html (German).