Chocolate Cake and Tarot Cards
Photography and Styling by Joseph Cuevas
New TABLE contributor Joseph Cuevas takes a stand in favor of cake for breakfast. We’re behind him all he way. Welcome to TABLE, Joseph!
“In this house we have chocolate cake for breakfast!” That’s a line from Practical Magic, one of my favorite movies. It inspires us to think about a very ordinary food in an unexpected way. Instead of seeing foods as very specific to times of day, or even times of year, the idea of chocolate cake for breakfast seems like a radical notion. Everyone knows chocolate cake is reserved for desserts only. Preferably after you’ve eaten all your green vegetables. Well, I’ve never been a fan of living life in an expected way, so I was determined to transform chocolate cake into a breakfast food.
Now I regularly (at least twice a week) enjoy chocolate cake, with tea and tarot cards, for breakfast. I love starting my day on a comforting and happy note, while getting some guidance from my cards. Chocolate cake and tarot conjure up a whole mood, an atmosphere, and I can’t recommend that magical pairing enough. You’ll find yourself much more receptive to magical guidance when you have delicious chocolate cake in your mouth.
In creating this recipe, I wanted to transform what chocolate cake could be. I didn’t want the standard airy-overly-sweet variety, so I worked on it until I came up with something filling, not too sweet, and very magical. I bake the cake into little bundtlettes, because aren’t little personal cakes a magical notion, too? But the recipe can easily be baked in a loaf pan, muffin pan, or 8” round. Feel free to bake this recipe into whatever shape your heart desires.
Please visit the Food section of tablemagazine.com for Joseph’s recipe, and look for him on Instagram: @Thoughtful_Bear
Vegan Chocolate Breakfast Cake
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup unsweetened soy milk & 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup blended silken tofu
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup vegan butter melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
Whipped cream & berries for garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F and spray your bundtlette pan with nonstick baking spray.
Mix together the soy milk and vinegar. Leave for about 5 minutes to thicken and form a vegan buttermilk.
In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, sea salt, and cocoa powder.
In a separate bowl whisk together the sugar, melted butter, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and tofu. Make sure all the sugar has dissolved.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix with a rubber spatula. Don’t over mix.
Spoon into your bundtlette pan.
Bake for 23-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool before removing them from the pan.
Top them with whipped cream and berries.
Bakers Notes
If your chocolate bundtlettes are domed on their base, you can take a kitchen towel, or paper towels, and carefully press them down to be more flat, while they are still warm and in the pan.
I use the Nordic Ware Bundtlette pan. It yields six good size bundtlettes.
If you are soy free, you can use unsweetened vegan yogurt in place of the tofu, and a different plant based milk instead of soy.
Bake with intention! I’m a firm believer that the energy we put out, will be in the food we prepare. So bake this recipe thinking about how much you will enjoy having them for breakfast!
STORY, RECIPE, STYLING AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSEPH CUEVAS
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