Vegan Frankfurter Kranz (German Bundt Cake with Cherry Jam and Rum Buttercream)

I generally have a rule that I never post more than one recipe a day. Today I am breaking that rule big time! Why? Because all my blogging events have happened to fall on exactly the same day. Today. Today I will be posting four recipes!

Firstly, at 8am this morning entries opened for the infamous Chopped/Vegan challenge hosted by vegan cooking guru Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The challenge was to create brunch dishes using butternut pumpkin, fresh rosemary, popcorn and apricot jam - quite a challenge but I really did enjoy it! Here are my two entries: Pumpkin Rosemary Popcorn Crumble and Lemon Rosemary Popcorn Cupcakes with Pumpkin Apricot Glaze. It was so much fun cooking with this unusual combination of ingredients and I have to say the results were actually quite delicious!

Secondly, it's time again for the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, this month hosted by Jennifer from Delicieux with a 'High Tea' theme.

Thirdly, the Eating the Alphabet Blog Hop is kicking off as well featuring the letters S and T, I've put up these lovely Balsamic Strawberry and Cucumber Sushi Rolls.

Whenever I think of high tea I always think of tiny mini cakes and bundt cakes. I'm not sure what it is about cakes cooked in a ring shape that makes me think of sitting on a balcony drinking tea at a white table strewn with doilies. This month is also German Food month, so I am pleased to be able to combine this Sweet Adventures Blog Hop with my theme for the month and bring you Frankfurter Kranz - a German bundt cake which translates to Frankfurt Crown. It's not hard to see why, it does look rather like a crown.

I'll give you a heads up though! It's very sweet. Vanilla cake + cherry jam + buttercream + sugared almonds equals a whole lot of sweet! I thought it was fantastic though, so don't let this turn you off, just make sure you invite some friends around to help you eat it!

Thanks again to the lovely hostesses of the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop. Here are my entries from the previous months:

September's Saucy Hop - Afghan Brides Fingers with Orange Blossom Syrup

August's Berry Hop - Sugar Free and Vegan Raspberry Fudge

July's Nut Hop -  Best Ever Vegan Carrot Cake  (I got this one in just in time, but it never appeared on the link list so you may have missed it!)
June's Pie Hop - Easy, Sticky, Messy Banana Rum Pie

May's Tea Hop - Thai Red Tea Vegan Jelly with Poached Apples
April's Lemon Hop - Lemon Curd 'Cake Sandwiches'

March's Layers Hop - Rhubarb and Apple Sago Parfait

February's 'Love' Hop - African Almond, Pistachio and Orange Blossom Bites

January's Choc Hop - Black Forest Shots & Truffles in 3 Flavours: Paprika, Tahini & Strawberry Gum
December's Festive Hop - Chocolate Ice-Cream Christmas Pudding


Vegan Frankfurter Kranz

Ingredients

The Cake
2 cups soymilk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup canola or rice bran oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond meal
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda

The fillers and toppers*
1 cup nuttelex (or other non dairy margarine)
3 cups soft icing mixture
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp vanilla rum (if you don't have vanilla rum just use plain dark rum - but don't use vanilla white rum!)
Black cherry jam
1/3 cup castor sugar
2/3 cup blanched almonds

*This recipe for buttercream makes enough to do a crumb coat and a top coat of icing, which is a good idea for a layer cake, as there will be plenty of crumbs to get though the icing. If you don't want to do a crumb coat then you can probably make about 2/3 of the icing quantity.

To Make:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Combine the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and whist until frothy. Set aside to curdle.
3. Add the oil, sugar and vanilla to the soy milk and mix well.
4. Add the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
5.  Pour into a well greased bundt tin and cook for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15-20 mins and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
While it's cooling you can:
6. Cream the margarine, icing mixture, vanilla and vanilla rum together to make the buttercream.
7. Lightly toast the blanched almonds in a pan or a grill/oven.
8. Heat the castor sugar in a small saucepan until completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir the almonds through it until completely coated with the sugar. Then spread out onto a sheet of greaseproof paper and put in the fridge to harden up.
Now that the cake is cooled you can:
9. Cut the cake into 3 fairly even layers (the top one will obviously be smaller, don't stress).
10. Spread a generous amount of cherry jam onto each layer. Then top with a layer of your rum buttercream.

11. Reassemble your layers and you're ready to ice it.

12. Spread a layer of the buttercream icing all over the cake, don't worry about making it too neat because this is the crumb coat or 'undercoat'. Then put the cake in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

13. Take it out and do the top layer. Make this layer nice and neat and smooth it out as much as you can. 

14. Roughly chop/break/smash your almond brittle and decorate the top with it liberally.

Makes 1 ring cake.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Germany!

Check out my other German recipe posts:

German Apple Pancakes

Rohkostsalat (Cabbage and Fruit Salad)

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake Parfait

Rosenkohl in Bier (Brussels Sprouts in Beer)

Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion Pie)

German Potato Salad

Kaiserschmarrn (Torn Pancakes with Apple)

Rote (und grün) Grütze (German Fruit Jelly)