Thursday, January 17, 2013

Chocolate Cake at Cafe Blossom

Cafe Blossom is a surprisingly delicious vegan, kosher restaurant, with multiple related but slightly different chains around the city.  The one on the Upper West Side, at least, has chocolate cake:


So we talked about problems with kosher chocolates, but there was some follow-up discussion that yielded a conclusion that the problem wasn't necessarily either the kosher stuff or the dairy-free stuff but rather the combination.  But the conclusion was based on the idea that we Jews have not done as good a job as vegans have in making chocolatey, dairy-free desserts.  But in this cake, we have not a dairy-free product made by people who keep kosher but rather kosher products made by vegans.  This turns out much better.

So the floury cake part is going to be a problem.  It's delicious but a little dry.  But vegan chocolate mousse made by vegans is much better than regular kosher parve chocolate mousse.  Cafe Blossom has done a great job using the mousse to mask a slightly dry cake, and the end product actually winds up totally great.

Bottom Line:  For vegan food and vegan chocolate dessert to follow, Cafe Blossom is a really excellent option.

5 comments:

  1. How was the food? Sincerely, someone with kosher-keeping in-laws. Also I have a theory that the best parve chocolate cake is going to basically be flourless chocolate cake (since it is super not-dry), but I haven't actually tried to make it it yet. Thoughts?

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  2. I have been there twice, and both times I have had the (kosher, vegan) cheeseburger, and both times I have been really happy. They use Daiya cheese, which I love -- I basically consider it on the level of a different species of real cheese. Like, there's cheddar, and gruyere, and daiya, and mozzarella... So I would give it a thumbs up on taking the in-laws, but I might ask the waiter/waitress before ordering something different -- they're usually very honest in terms of which menu items they like best.

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  3. Oh, and as for the flourless chocolate cake... a post on my mom's (unbelievable) flourless cake is to come.

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  4. Amazing! Um, I've been using Martha for the flourless chocolate cake (4 ingredients) and it has been amazing. This cake better be on a whole different level of awesome before I am willing to expend more effort.

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  5. If those ingredients are chocolate, sugar, eggs, and a LOT of margarine, it is a similar recipe, hahaha

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