Black Bean Chocolate Cake

This recipe is my very own all time favourite cake recipe. It's presence in our fridge is almost as common as milk and eggs, and I kinda always feel like having just a little piece with a cup of coffee. Besides the fact that it is moist and has a rich, deep chocolate flavour, this cake is almost healthy enough to eat as a breakfast.

Black bean chocolate cake:

• Makes 1 loaf
• 1 cup cooked black beans
• 3 large eggs1/2 cup/100 g sugar
• 3 heaping Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup/50 g dark chocolate 70%
• 1 tsp instant coffee or 1 espresso shot
• 1/2 vanilla pod, scraped
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Juice and zest from 1/2 organic orange
• A pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F/175 °C

2. In a blender combine all of the ingredients, except the dark chocolate. Blend until it is smooth and free of any lumps.

3. Pour the batter into a parchment lined loaf pan. And yes the batter is very liquid-y. Chop the dark chocolate and spread it across the surface, some of the chunks should fall into the batter or else help it with a teaspoon, in order to get chocolate inside the cake as well.

4. Bake the cake for approximately 35 min, and set a side to cool completely before removing it from the pan

There Is A Light Fruit Cake Recipe

For those who prefer a light fruit cake recipe, this one is time tested and tasty. This cake is filled with goodies like coconut, pineapple and cherries. It's a real crowd pleaser, and not just for Christmas.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 3 hours

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cups shredded coconut
• 1 1/2 cups candied cherries, cut in halves
• 1 1/2 cups candied pineapple, diced
• 1 1/2 cups white raisins
• 1 1/2 cups slivered, blanched almonds
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup pineapple juice

Directions:

• Line 9" or 10" tube pan with two thicknesses of buttered brown paper.
• Measure flour (without sifting) into a large bowl. Add salt and baking powder. Stir well to blend. Add coconut, fruits and nuts. Mix until fruit is separated and coated with flour.
• Cream sugar, butter, eggs and almond extract together thoroughly.
• Stir in fruit and flour mixture alternately with pineapple juice, starting and ending with the fruit and flour mixture. Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan.
• Preheat oven to 275°F.
• Bake for 3 to 3 1/3 hours. Keep a pan of hot water in bottom of the oven while baking. When baked, leave the cake in pan until it has cooled. Remove the paper liner and wrap the cake in foil. Store it in the refrigerator or a cool place.

Fruit Cake Glaze:

• Combine 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water and 1/3 cup light corn syrup in a sauce pan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved, then boil to firm ball stage (242°F on a candy thermometer).
• Brush the hot glaze over the cooled cake. Decorate top with candied cherries and nuts and brush cake again with hot glaze. Let dry thoroughly before wrapping and storing.
• Makes one large cake or can be baked for a shorter time in small cake tins.

Nothing Better Than A Delicious Cake

Who doesn’t like cakes, every one does, and perhaps it’s the most loved dessert in the world. I have never met a person who hates cakes, probably someone does have likes and dislikes for a special type of cakes, but have you ever met a person who would say I don’t like cake as the broad category itself.
The value of cake as a highly regarded dessert can be observed in our routine lives. You would have never seen any birthday or an anniversary party without a cake? In fact if there is no cake, there are no birthdays or anniversaries at all, right?

Undoubtedly cakes are the most preferred choice anywhere and are even now very professionally sub-classified into categories like wedding cakes, birthday cakes and anniversary cakes. We see bakers specializing in wedding cakes only and if you would ask them that you want a cake for birthday they would refer you another specialist in birthday cakes.
Cakes have this soft creamy taste, with delectable and appetizing feel. The smell in bakeries or the fragrance while the cake is baked reluctantly creates desires for it, whether you had ten chickens in your lunch and you are stuffed up to your throat.
Fragrance and taste of a cake is one thing but talking about cakes itself bring a mouth-watering experience due to gigantic cake types and flavors. Cakes happen to have incorporated every flavor you can think of.
You name a flavor and cake is here, there are chocolate cakes and then chocolates cakes have further hundred divisions like chocolate cream, chocolate fudge, chocolate moose and etc. Similarly other cakes can be found in variety of flavors categories like Coffee cake, Lemon tart, apple cake, Black forest, Butter cake, Cheese cake, Pineapple Cake, Angle food, Bakewell tart, Battenburg, Bundt cake, Carrot cake, Butterfly cake, Date & Walnut Loaf, Chiffon cake, Croquembouche, Devil’s food cake, Dobos cake, Eccles cake, Fruit cake, Icecream Cake, Jaffa Cake, Lamington, Marble Cake, Kendal Mint Cake and etc.
Most chances are that you would have never even heard of these names before, but the fact is that the names above are just a mere synopsis of the wide and vast range of cake’s flavors around the world. Don’t beat yourself to it, if you have never heard of the names above because most of these cakes’ types discussed are available in their specific region and countries.
The concept of cake has been changed with respect to its tastes, designs and presentations. Now we have brands associated with cakes, we see names in market with unprecedented reputes and image in making the most luscious cakes having striking designs and stunning presentations.
I belong to Pakistan, and I see so many bakers’ brands with their own specialties in cakes. The development in cakes industry is outcome of lots of societal factors. Cakes bring easiness as a dessert and as a standard gift. You wana wish someone for birthday or anniversary, and if you can’t get suitable gift for any occasion. This is where a cake comes in; the best thing about a cake is you can send it as gift to anyone on any special occasion.