Lana Chocolate Cake (My Inspired Dairy Free Version)
This is my dairy free version of the Lana Cake I love to eat as a kid. Chocolate fudge sponge with an even fudgier chocolate pudding frosting. A light fudgy chocolate cake that is simply delightful on the palate and so easy to love.
Servings: 6 inch four layer cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Sponge Cake
- Dry ingredients
- 40 g top flour
- 80 g cake flour
- 40 g cocoa powder
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Yolk mixture
- 4 egg yolks ~55g
- 90 g brown or white sugar
- 75 ml oil
- 75 ml water
- 1 1/2 tbsp chocolate emulco
- Meringue
- 4 egg whites ~120g
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 50 g sugar
Chocolate Pudding Frosting
- 650 ml water
- 5 tbsp mung bean flour
- 130 g dark chocolate drops
- 65 g sugar
- 1 tbsp chocolate emulco
- 2 tsp gelatine powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
Chocolate Sponge
- Sift the dry ingredients together into a medium bowl. Set aside and make the yolk mixture.
- Place the egg yolks and sugar in the bowl. Whisk on medium to high speed till pale and thickened ~ 5-10 min to ribbon stage (depending on the power of your whisk).
- Add oil, water, chocolate emulco and beat briefly on low speed till well mixed ~1 min . Add in dry ingredients in two parts and beat on low speed till just evenly mixed (do not over-mix or cake will be dense). Switch to a spatula and finish by hand. Make sure to scrape down the sides and mix well. Set aside and start on the meringue.
- Place the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl along with the cream of tartar. On medium-high speed, beat till white and frothy. Then gradually add the sugar and whisk till medium stiff peaks. Transfer a third of the meringue to the cocoa batter and gently fold in with a spatula to loosen up the cocoa batter. Add the remaining meringue and gently fold in till everything is evenly mixed together. Do not over-mix - once the meringue is incorporated, stop.
- Line a 6 inch round tin. Do not grease the sides. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake @140C (lowest rack of the oven) for ~60min or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven, turn the tin upside down immediately and cool for 10 mins before carefully un-moulding. Set aside to cool completely on a cooling rack.
Chocolate pudding frosting
- To make fudge frosting, place 650ml water in a medium pot. Remove one and two ladles of water and transfer to a small bowl, along with the mung bean flour. Whisk the mixture till the mung bean flour dissolves. Set aside. Place the rest of the ingredients in the pot with the water and cook over medium heat. Stir till it starts to come to a brisk boil.
- Loosen the mung bean flour mixture with a whisk and add to the pot, stirring quickly all the time. On medium heat, continue to stir till it the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from the heat and sieve the chocolate pudding mixture for a smooth frosting. Set aside to cool.
Assembly
- Once the cake is cool, carefully slice it in four horizontal layers with a serrated knife.
- Place one cake layer onto a cake board and start frosting. (Note: the chocolate frosting with be warm but it will cool and thicken further as you frost) Ladle the fudge frosting generously over the cake layer until the top is fully covered. Gently place the next cake layer on and repeat the process for each layer.
- Using a palate knife, generously smear the frosting around the cake as evenly as possible. Swirl palate knife over the sides and the surface of the cake to create a gentle pattern. Place in the refrigerator to set completely, for at least 4 hours. This cake will keep in the fridge well sealed in an air-tight container, for up to five days.
Video
Notes
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#1 Chocolate sponge
Be patient to beat the eggs and sugar till ribbon stage. The visible signs are a lightened, pale color and a noticeable thickness in the batter. When you lift the whisk and draw a ribbon with the batter, a clear line will form and slowly disappear into the mixture. That would be ribbon stage.
Do not over-whip the meringue. If the meringue is over-whipped, it tends to form stubborn, dry clumps and will not fold easily into the batter. Trying to incorporate the persistent clumps may result in greater folding or stirring which will likely deflate the air in the meringue. Therefore whisk the meringue only until medium stiff peaks.
Always mix with a gentle hand. Do not over-mix when adding the flour, the meringue and the other ingredients. Otherwise, gluten strands (from the flour) will start to form giving a denser and more chewy texture. If using a electric whisk, always whisk on Low speed and mix in gently by hand if necessary to finish the process.
#2 Chocolate emulco - Yes or No?
Some of you might be like me and find chocolate emulco to be a rather strong chocolate flavouring. I must say I am not its biggest fan. Chocolate emulco does give the cake a fudgy chocolate taste but IMHO it also produces an artificial flavour and a rather synthetic aftertaste.
One might ask, can we omit chocolate emulco and just use cocoa powder? I would say yes for other chocolate cakes but not for this Lana Chocolate Cake.
I find that without adding a little chocolate emulco, I could not get that familiar Lana Chocolate Cake taste. The key is therefore in the proportion added; just be careful not to over-add or the chocolate taste will be unnatural.
#3 Chocolate pudding frosting
Stirring continually is essential - the chocolate pudding is easy to make but the important part is to always stir well whilst cooking the pudding. What gives the pudding texture is actually the mung bean flour or tepong hoön kueh. That’s why this Lana Chocolate Cake is so light and easy to eat as there is very little fat content in the frosting. (Note: the only fat content in the frosting is from the dark chocolate drops)
Instead of whipping up chocolate with full fat cream like a ganache or buttercream, the mung bean flour helps to gelatinize the pudding and thickens it as it cooks. Stirring is hence especially key when adding in the mung bean mixture.
Always stir briskly as the mung bean flour will thicken the pudding quite quickly. As it thickens, it also tends to burn more easily so stir and watch the heat carefully. Once the mixture can fully coat a spatula well, take it off heat and transfer to a bowl or dish to cool so that the pudding doesn’t thicken further.
Frost warm - always sieve for a smooth gleamy pudding and start frosting when the pudding is still warm. If not, once the pudding is completely cooled, it would have congealed and one will get rather clumpy frosting that is more difficult to layer on and not pretty!
#4 Storage
This Lana Chocolate Cake is best eaten chilled as the chocolate pudding frosting is simply delicious once it has set and chilled. It tastes best consumed within the first two days and can be stored up to five days in a well sealed container and kept chilled in the fridge.
Did you make this? I would love to know how it turned out. Tell me more! 😊 Please leave me a comment or tag me on Instagram, FB hashtag #thesugarcrumble