The Star: Cake and beer, together at last
The Star published an article on The Upcycled Food Lab’s vegan chocolate cake, which was whipped up from beer brewing leftovers in the lab, in celebration of the New Zealand Food Waste Champions 12.3 first anniversary. NZ Champions 12.3 ran a cake challenge to celebrate their first birthday by challenging members of the public to make a cake using surplus ingredients from their pantries or fridge.
The cake was a vegan chocolate spent grain cake with vegan chocolate beer icing and decorated with hops. Spent grain is a waste product from brewing beer, now proven it can be upcycled into chocolate cake. Try baking this cake at home using the recipe below!
Click here to view The Star E-Edition article.
See the post on Otago Sciences Facebook Page.
Vegan spent grain cake recipe
Cake:
125 ml oil
175 g light brown soft sugar
330 g very ripe banana (about 3 medium)
125 g flour
50 g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
½ tsp salt
125 g wet spent grain
100 ml unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used soy)
1 tsp cider or white wine vinegar (or lemon juice)
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 g dark chocolate (melted)
Ganache:
125 g dark chocolate
120 ml full fat coconut milk
2 tbsp upcycled beer (or any beer you have available)
a pinch of salt
Method:
Heat oven to 180 °C.
Oil medium-sized cake tin.
In a small bowl add the vinegar (or alternative acid) to the milk, set aside for 10 mins or until curdled.
In a large bowl whisk together the brown sugar and oil.
Mash the banana and whisk it into the sugar and oil mixture. Add the vanilla essence.
In a food processor blend the spent grain and milk to make a porridge-like slurry, set aside.
Add the dry ingredients into the main bowl and fold in the spent grain slurry.
Double boil the dark chocolate by placing a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water. Once melted, fold into the mixture.
Pour the batter into the cake tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake bounces bake on touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 20 minutes then carefully turn it out onto a wire rack and leave it to cool completely.
To make the ganache, place the chopped dark chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and set it aside.
Place the coconut milk and a pinch of salt in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted and just coming up to a simmer - do not let it boil.
Pour the milk over the chocolate and stir until melted and smooth.
Once cooled, spread the ganache over top the cooled cake then serve and enjoy.
Happy baking!