Sweet of the Week #11i, Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Pomegranate Seeds

This week’s Sweet is Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake.  

I had never heard of Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake when Mark suggested it as one of this year’s Sweets. I asked Mark about it and he said his mother-in-law makes it.  While at the gym (the place where a lot of good food chatter occurs), Carrie said her mom used to make it.  I was starting to think this was a bygone classic, a cake not often made by today’s bakers.  A little research revealed that Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake is a depression era recipe, thanks to the ingenuity of bakers who had mayonnaise on hand but perhaps did not have eggs and oil due to food rationing.  Here I go, taking a recipe from the past and removing the gluten, animal products and most of the refined sugar.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes, Gluten-Free, Vegan
Makes 24 Cupcakes

Cake
3 1/2 cups of my favorite gluten-free flour blend
1 1/2 t. guar gum
1/4 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda

1 cup coconut palm sugar (look where Thai food is at the grocery store if you have trouble locating this)
1 cup coconut nectar
1 1/2 cups Nasoya vegan mayo, Nayonaise (used instead of Vegenaise because it is lower in calories, I’m counting!)

2 T. flax seed meal dissolved in 6 T. hot water (egg replacer)
1 t. vanilla extract

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz. chopped chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger’s 62% semi-sweet chocolate)
1 3/4 cups water, boiling

Mix flour blend, guar gum, baking powder and baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Boil water, remove from heat and whisk in the unsweetened cocoa powder and chopped chocolate until mixture is smooth.  Let sit while you ready your stand mixer.

In bowl of stand mixer, mix coconut palm sugar, coconut nectar, Nasoya, flax seed dissolved in water and vanilla extract.

Once the sugar mixture is well mixed, add 1/2 of the flour mixture.  After the flour is incorporated, add half of the melted chocolate mixture.  Add remaining flour, mixing again to incorporate, then finish by adding the remaining chocolate mixture. 

Lines 2 muffin tins with 24 cupcakes papers.  Scoop batter into cupcake papers, using a generous 1/3 cup per cavity.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes.  Test with a toothpick to determine if cake is cooked through.  You will get a very fine crumb on a toothpick when these are ready to come out of the oven.

While it was tempting to eat these unfrosted, I whipped up a chocolate ganache and dipped each cupcake into the ganache while it was still warm.  I sprinkled the top with a few dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds from Trader Joe’s. 

Dark Chocolate Ganache
1/3 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
2 T. Earth Balance vegan buttery stick
6 oz. dark chocolate, chopped (I used the same chocolate as in the cake)

In a double boiler, heat the almond milk and Earth Balance until they are combined.  Add the chopped chocolate and stir constantly until chocolate is melted and well incorporated.  While the ganache was warm, I dipped the tops of the cupcakes and immediately sprinkled with dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds.  You would wait for the ganache to cool a bit and knife frost with this ganache if you prefer.  It’s a good basic chocolate ganache that gets used often in my house.

I really enjoyed these cupcakes.  They were very moist and had a great firm texture, making me think they would be great for a picnic or tucked into a lunchbox.  Chocolate Mayonnaise cake, even greatly modified, is now on my list of favorite Sweets!