Chocolate Wacky Cake with Soy Nog Custard Sauce
11. Jan, 2010 
7 Comments
When I go home to visit family I usually don’t do a lot of baking and cooking, especially since baking has been my full-time job for the last several years. But on my most recent trip, I wanted to make some cinnamon rolls with my nephews since I can’t ship them home, and I got excited to do some cooking when I saw that the local grocery store carried a few types of Gardein that I haven’t been able to find out here in California. (Gotta love it when going to the grocery store is one of the highlights in your life.)
I did bake one other thing – the chocolate “wacky cake” that see you above, smothered in a Silk Nog flavored custard. Ryan’s brother and his wife were hosting the family for dinner and asked us to bring a dessert, so I had to come up with something that I could make from the ingredients in my mom’s kitchen, and something that would be simple since I was still in lazy vacation mode.
I’d made other versions of wacky cake before and it’s always yummy, so when I came across this recipe I thought I’d give it a try. This cake would be perfect with just some powdered sugar on top, but when I came across a box of custard powder in the pantry I knew I had to make it as a sauce for the cake. I’m a sucker for all things custard. When I studied in London my junior year of college they served a hot custard sauce over dessert almost every night in my dorm cafeteria, and you can bet I would eat a whole bowl of it.
We had some Silk Nog in the fridge, so I thought I’d use that instead of regular non-dairy milk to make the sauce more seasonal. I figured it would taste good with chocolate (what doesn’t?), and even though I usually feel the pressure of needing to impress with dessert, I’ve also tried to get more comfortable with experimenting and being okay with the end result not working out. I figured each thing would taste great on their own, so they must be good together, right?
I guess that logic doesn’t always work out – I’m sure we can all list things that are good on their own but don’t go together so well – but I’m glad to say that it did here. The cake was super moist and had a rich chocolate flavor, and the warm custard sauce with its hint of nog flavor was great on top. Both things were simple to make but tasted impressive, so if you love chocolate and you’ve never made a wacky cake, you need to!
we had some bird’s in the cupboard (english boyfriend…) so the other night i made custard with a can of light coconut milk. i’m thinking chocolate wacky cake with coconut custard is in order!
Hi, kindas! Coconut milk custard sounds awesome! I can’t wait to try that!
What a fabulous idea! I bet that would be great using that seasonal peppermint chocolate soymilk too. Mmmm, too bad I don’t have an excuse for a cake anytime soon.
-K
Awesome idea to use soy eggnog as a base for frosting! Glad you liked the recipe.
You just made my heart skip a beat! I love the way this looks and it sounds delicious too. I love chocolate cake, and I love soynog, so I can only imagine the combination would be spectacular!
it was very yummy!!! thanks
I just discovered your blog. I like to bake from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. And I also started to by Gardein. It’s good. Love your cake.