Vegan nut cake with sour cherries

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 200 g margarine
• 100 g sugar
• 100 g dark chocolate, 50% cocoa or more, vegan
• 125 g hazelnuts, ground
• 150 g wholemeal flour, preferably wholemeal spelt flour
• 1 jar sour cherries, approx. 720 ml
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 60 ml chickpea water or water from white beans or green peas
• 1 pack of cream stiffener
• 1 handful of walnuts
• 100 g almonds, chopped
• 2 large bananas, ripe
• 1 packet of baking powder
• 1 tsp lemon or lime juice
• Fat for the mold

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 50 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 10 minutes

fluffy and juicy, from a springform pan

Place the sour cherries in a sieve and drain, pressing them against the sieve with a spoon if you like. The cherries should be well drained before mixing them into the batter. Drain a small jar of chickpeas, peas, or beans and reserve 60 ml of the liquid. Beat the liquid with a mixer until frothy. Add the cream stabilizer and beat a little longer. The cream stabilizer maintains the foam; without it, the foam will collapse after a short time. You can also use more than 60 ml, which will make the batter fluffier later. Mash the bananas in a bowl until you have a fairly homogeneous banana mixture. Sprinkle the bananas with lemon or lime juice. This prevents the bananas from browning and helps the baking powder “rise” evenly. Chop a bar of chocolate into smaller pieces with a knife if the chocolate isn’t already chunky. Now, beat the margarine in a bowl with a mixer until smooth, add the sugar, and continue beating until the sugar is dissolved. Then, add the mashed bananas and continue beating. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, ground hazelnuts, chocolate pieces, and cinnamon well. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the other mixture and stir until well blended and a soft dough-like consistency has formed. Chop the walnuts and stir them into the batter with a spoon, along with the chopped almonds and the now well-drained sour cherries. Finally, carefully fold the whipped pea/bean foam into the batter, without stirring, so that the batter is fluffy at the end. The smell or taste of the pea/bean water will dissipate during baking and will no longer be noticeable even in fresh batter. Pour the batter into a well-greased springform pan and bake in the oven for approximately 45-50 minutes at 175-200°C (350-400°F) with top/bottom heat. This depends on the oven; do the toothpick test.