Smooth Sailing: Vegan Vanilla Rum Cake

Armed with one recipe in my arsenal, I set out to acquire more.  Next event: Mother’s Day 2011.  Since I came up short on my Mom’s birthday last year, I wanted to create something special for her and my grandmother.  My all-time favorite cake has to be the St. Honoré Cake from Dianda’s Italian American Pastry in the Mission District of San Francisco.  An exquisite rum-soaked vanilla sponge cake filled with pastry cream placed on top a layer of flaky caramel pâte brisée and surrounded by light and puffy profiteroles.  In short, Heaven on a plate.  This cake was the only thing I asked for on my 21st birthday, and again for my 33rd.

My 33rd Birthday

Now there was absolutely no way I was going to attempt Veganizing this holy grail of cakes.  Some things are much too sacred to be tampered with.  And obviously I don’t yet possess the skill to create such a marvelous masterpiece.  With my current ability, I set forth in creating a Vegan Vanilla Rum Cake with Pastry Cream filling.  First things first, how to make a vanilla cake.  It’s not as easy as it may seem.  I was afraid all of the Vegan substitutions were going to overpower the delicate flavor of the vanilla.  Would the egg replacers, margarine, soy milk, apple sauce and such not allow the vanilla to shine through?  I needed to search for a much simpler recipe.

Thumbing through the internet, I found that some folks were having success baking the Golden Vanilla recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World as a layer cake.  So I gave it a try and it worked.  What a huge relief to have a recipe succeed on the first trial run.  The only substitution I made was canola oil for the margarine because I didn’t want a butter flavored cake.  Cake recipe, checked.

Ms. Daisy

My next challenge was to make Vegan Pastry Cream, but it proved to not be a challenge at all.  Classic pastry cream is an involved process including separating eggs, tempering yolks in milk, and delicate work at the stove top.  Without the worry of it turning into sugary scrambled eggs, making Vegan pastry cream couldn’t be any easier.  Pastry cream recipe, checked.

The last piece of the puzzle was presentation.  I couldn’t just willy-nilly slap strawberries on top of the cake, as I had done previously.  I wanted it to appear more elegant.  I searched through Google Images for some inspiration and discovered that there are so many ways to sculpt a simple strawberry into small edible pieces of art.  What drew my attention were the strawberry rose garnishes.  I found a tutorial on YouTube revealing how simple it is to create these little gems.  Although, at first glance, his technique paired with the throbbing epic music made me anxious that he would hack off a finger.  Don't worry, the video is safe to watch.  Presentation, checked.

All there was left to do was to construct the cake.  When I arrived at my Mom’s house, the look on her face upon reveal made me take pride in my work.  In the end, all that mattered was that Mom and Grandma were pleased.

Vegan Vanilla Rum Cake with Pastry Cream Filling

(Based on Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

Dry Ingredients:

 2 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

4 tbs Corn Starch
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Sea Salt

Wet Ingredients:

1/4 cup Soy Milk + 2 tsp Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

2/3 cup Canola Oil

1 1/2 cup Sugar
1 3/4 cup Soy Milk

4 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 320ºF.  Add vinegar to 1/4 cup soy milk and reserve.  Sift together dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl.

Pour oil and sugar into a large bowl and beat with a wire whisk until well incorporated.  Whisk in 1 3/4 cup soy milk and vanilla.  Fold in dry ingredients.  Lastly, fold in soy milk and vinegar mixture.  Pour into two 9-inch cake pans and bake for 27-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Allow cakes to cool. 

Rum Syrup

1/4 cup Dark Rum

1/3 cup Water

1/2 cup Sugar

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over low heat to dissolve sugar.  Allow to cool to room temperature.  When cooled, brush syrup over cooled cake layers with a pastry brush until absorbed.

Pastry Cream Filling

(Based on Vegan Pastry Cream by The Vegan Chef)

1/2 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
2 cups Vanilla Soy Milk
1/3 cup Sugar
1 pinch Sea Salt

2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 tbs Earth Balance Vegan Margarine

Place flour in a small bowl and whisk in 1/2 cup soy milk.  In a small saucepan, pour remaining soy milk, sugar and salt, and whisk to combine.  Add flour mixture and cook over medium heat while whisking constantly until mixture thickens (around 5 minutes).  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and margarine.

Place in a glass bowl and cover the cream directly with plastic wrap to avoid a skin being formed.  Place in the fridge until thoroughly chilled.

Rum Buttercream Frosting

6 tbs Earth Balance Vegan Margarine
6 tbs Earth Balance Natural Shortening
2 1/4 cups Powdered Sugar
2 tbs Rum
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Using an electric hand mixer, cream margarine and shortening until light and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar in stages.  Lastly, mix in rum and vanilla.