Double Chocolate Black Bean Cake

Double the Chocolate, Double the Beans

11 months ago, I made a cake. It was the first recipe I ever posted on Substack, celebrating the end of Only Beans.

A white bean cake with whipped aquafaba frosting and Blenheim apricot jam.

I must say, that cake was stunning and tasted decent, but in the past year I have been able to meld my bean brain and my baking brain to add a bit more sweetness and create something as decadent and delightful as a true cake, while preserving the magic of bean-frosted bean.

Double Chocolate Double Bean Cake was born. She is a chocolate black bean cake topped with a silken tofu mousse and is everything I have ever dreamed of and more.

Growing up, there was a health food store in my area called Pacific Coast Greens. I talk about my formative experiences in this store in my Bean Pudding Recipe (which you can also use as a frosting if you want even more fiber and my eternal respect). What I did not mention in that article is that in the bakery case at Pacific Coast Greens, there was also your standard three-type chocolate mousse mini cake. White, milk, and dark chocolate mousse rested neatly atop a dark chocolate cake base, and while that store closed in 2018, and I believe that cake last graced my lips in 2010, I will never forget her.

The beautiful thing is that silken tofu can whip up into something just as magical in a matter of moments and solidify into a mousse that is truly indistinguishable from its cream-based comrades overnight.

So here is my black bean cake with a tofu mousse frosting that doesn’t taste like beans, and instead brings me back to the deep pleasures of my childhood, without the adulthood crash of processed high-sugar foods. This cake is gluten-, refined sugar-, and dairy-free, but it does require eggs for the perfect texture.

Cake Recipe: