What I Ate: Chocolate Popcorn Crumble Cake!

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.

                                                                             - Harriet Van Horne 

And so it was, that one fine rainy day I walked into my kitchen and decided to experiment. With little or no recipes, no TNT (tried and trusted) meals, and a willingness to go with the flow; I was able to create some deliciousness out of a combination of some unusual ingredients.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet my "Chocolate Popcorn Crumble Cake with a Caramel/Granola topping"! I know...terrible name. lol. But trust me, it tasted so good I wouldn't mind naming it "That Crunchy Deliciousness" 

Here's how it happened. I have this TNT recipe for a chocolate cake via Food52 and I was badly in need of a cake fix. Unfortunately, I had no AP flour...Gasp! So I raided my pantry and found a pack of popcorn flour I had bought on a whim a couple of months ago and never used (I originally planned to make Banana-popcorn bread). I also had some corn flour on hand, and with a few tweaks to my favorite Chocolate cake recipe, my "Frankencake" was born.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Popcorn Flour (You can actually make yours from popcorn, see techniques here and here)

1/2 Cup Corn Flour

1 Cup Light Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1  Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt

5 Tablespoons Canola Oil

1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Vanilla Essence

1 Cup Cold Water

For Caramel
Granulated Sugar, Honey and Butter cooked at medium heat until sugar melts completely and is golden brown. I added a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of Vanilla for added flavor

For Granola Topping
Here's a link to my Granola Recipe. I made some slight changes; dry toasted the oats and nuts in a pan (my cake was in the oven and I didn't want the temperature drops that would result from the constant opening) and then poured the hot caramel over them and mixed until fully coated. I also left the nuts whole.

Now for the main recipe: sift the flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking soda into a large bowl and mix in the sugar. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and combine wet and dry ingredients.

Line the bottom of your baking pan with parchment paper and grease the sides (I use an oil spray).

Pour in the batter and bake at medium heat for twenty-five minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Note: Popcorn Flour and Corn flour are both gluten free so the cake will not bind...if you would like a less crumbly texture and more moisture, you could add ground flax seeds or gelatin to serve as a binding agent. (or stick to the original recipe here)

Once your cake is ready, pour the hot caramel over the top of the cake and spread the granola over it. The caramel will bind the granola to the cake. Remember to handle with care as melted sugar is extremely hot. You can press in the granola with a soft spatula to help seal it in some more. Allow to cool.

This is what it looked like when I was done.

You can take the cake out of the baking pan before adding the toppings

Yum! :D

I was pleased with the way this turned out and I'll definitely be doing it again in the near future (with some additional modifications).

Until next time, God bless you.

Love,
Preye.