Thursday, September 9, 2010

Chocolate Cake with Figs in Sweet Red Wine


Okay, so this isn't chocolate cake. It's really vegan low-fat chocolate pear sauce (one word?) cake. It sure doesn't look like it, right? I hate to say, though, it tastes like it! By which I mean, it tastes like a cake with no fats in it. I mean, for what it is, it's good! Really good. And if you are vegan, or have little kids with constant cake cravings, or maybe big kids with constant cake cravings (or maybe it's just you, let's face it, huh?) but you want to curtail the fat intake, this might be the cake for you. And it's the easiest cake ever. Truly. I had lots of pear sauce in the fridge, and a bit of nice cocoa sitting around, so this cake came to the rescue.

More honesty: it's dry. But that's where this fig compote comes in! I had no idea how nicely figs and chocolate pair together. Maybe it's the wine that brings it all together. Fresh organic figs (from California, but I'm still poking around people's yards, and looking for some nice Italian folks who might have a fig tree around here) with sugar and a red dessert wine. I halved the figs, covered them in the wine, added a half cup of sugar and boiled for about ten minutes. They are incredibly good and dress up this cake perfectly. A little mint doesn't hurt, too! Just remember for your next photo shoot: figs, booze and mint. You'll look great.

8 comments:

  1. Call me an egg-and-butter snob, but I would never have considered making this without your beautiful photos. You make it look & sound delicious. And I'm thinking, with the last of those teeny, tiny pears, that pear sauce is in my future. (And wine, of course. Always wine.)

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  2. Kaela, you and everyone else! I'm always fascinated by cakes with nothing more than flour and fruit. But butter makes everything better. And so does wine!

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  3. Oh little cake, you do look divine! (I love that little hint of mint.) What a feast of posts I'm coming home to. I'm just one foot out of the woods so far; we'll catch up soon!

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  4. This looks yummy! Thanks for the tips on how to make it moist!

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  5. Did something wrong in posting my comment... my name is Ann Nichols not "s"!!! Sorry!

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  6. THis DOES look delicious. And I just happened to have made wads of fig jam too. I think I'll try it. Thanks! Ken

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  7. Oh, Julia, you know me so well...

    Another reason I need to find some figs!

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  8. Shae - Oh, man, you are going to be glued to your computer! Make sure you get out and make some jam!

    Ann - Ha! Re: moistening the cake? You could also just pour some dessert wine over it! ; )

    Ken - Oh, Ken, you lucky man! You probably have beautiful figs in your backyard, don't you!

    Rebecca - Skip the figs! Let's just have a glass of wine, shall we?

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