Before coming to Wanaka, I had never seen or heard of a Chimney Cake before, and if you haven’t, then you might be wondering what it is. Whilst myself and Sam were having a look around a local market, we came across someone selling chimney cakes. They looked epic; huge big pieces of dough that were cooked by rotating them in an oven, and then covered in sugar or other delicious toppings.
Unfortunately, as with most things, they weren’t vegan, so we could only watch and wish. When we got home, we researched them a bit more, and began experimenting to make our own.
The biggest hurdle to these chimney cakes is how they’re cooked. The dough is easy, but getting that traditional cylindrical shape is harder, especially without any specialised equipment. We got creative and ended up using our wooden Rolling Pin, and turning it by hand in the oven. Whilst it’s a bit more labour intensive, it really works.
If you’re doing this yourself, obviously ensure that the rolling pin you’re using is oven-proof safe. We don’t want the whole thing going up in flames. You’ll also need to ensure that you can balance the rolling pin in the oven, so that the dough isn’t touching anything – we balanced ours on a baking sheet, with the two handles on the baking sheet edge so that the middle part was suspended. We then went back every 5 minutes whilst it was in the oven to turn it slightly, to ensure an even bake, just like a traditional chimney cake.
You can go wild with the toppings. We went with a simple sugar one, but we also experimented with desiccated coconut and sprinkles; all are fab. If you want to go all out, fill the inside with chocolate, ice cream, strawberries and marshmallows for a seriously epic dessert.
Have a go, get creative with the toppings and enjoy! If you’d like to check out how we did it, head on over to our Facebook page where you can watch our vegan chimney cake video.
Vegan Chimney Cake - 4 ways
Ingredients
- 350g plain flour
- 250g sugar
- 7g fast-action yeast sachet
- 200ml soy milk
- 70g vegan butter
- 1tsp apple cider vinegar
- 30ml vegetable oil
- Heat-proof rolling pin (read above for more info)
- Toppings (optional)
- 50g caster sugar (for sugar syrup)
- 200g desiccated coconut
- Pot of vegan sprinkles
- Vegan ice cream
- 200g vegan chocolate, melted
- 1 punnet of strawberries, chopped
- Vegan marshmallows
Directions
- Step 1 In a large bowl, add your flour, 50g sugar, yeast, soy milk, 50g vegan butter, apple cider vinegar and vegetable oil
- Step 2 With a spoon, begin to mix it until roughly combined, then bring it together using your hands until you have a dough
- Step 3 Remove from the bowl and knead for about 5 minutes. Place back in the bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1 hour
- Step 4 Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees fan
- Step 5 On a lightly floured surface, place your dough. Cut into 4 equal sized pieces
- Step 6 Take 1 piece and roll it out into a large circle shape, about 0.5cm thick
- Step 7 Using a sharp kitchen knife or pizza cutter, carefully cut the dough into one long spiral shape, with the width of the spiral about 1 inch thick (check out our Facebook video, link above, to see how it’s done!)
- Step 8 Take your rolling pin and lightly cover with vegan butter (the remaining 20g)
- Step 9 Starting at one end of the rolling pin, ‘stick’ one end of the spiral. Then carefully wrap the dough around the rolling pin, making sure there are no gaps, until you get to the end of the rolling pin. Discard any leftover dough
- Step 10 On a large baking sheet or area, cover with the remaining 200g sugar and roll the rolling pin/dough into it so that it is completely covered in sugar
- Step 11 Suspend the rolling pin on a baking tray so that the dough isn’t touching anything, and place in the oven for 15 minutes. Make sure to go and turn the rolling pin every 5 minutes to ensure an even bake
- Step 12 Once golden brown, remove from the oven and decorate!
- Step 13 Chimney cake 1 – Sugar: Once out of the oven, re-roll in sugar whilst hot (or add some cinnamon to turn it into cinnamon sugar). Then very careful remove from the rolling pin by pushing down at either of the ends and allow to cool on a cooling rack (it will harden up as it cools so be gentle!)
- Step 14 Chimney cake 2 – Desiccated coconut: In a small bowl, mix the 50g sugar with 50ml of warm water, to create a syrup. Once out of the oven, brush with the sugar syrup, before rolling in desiccated coconut. Gently remove from the rolling pin and allow to cool
- Step 15 Chimney cake 3 – Sprinkles: Once out of the oven, brush with the sugar syrup then roll in vegan sprinkles. Carefully remove from the rolling pin and allow to cool
- Step 16 Chimney cake 4 – The Monster: Once out of the oven, re-roll in sugar like with the first chimney cake and allow to cool. Once cooled, with a pair of scissors, carefully cut a line down the middle of the chimney cake, then another line, so that you can remove a piece of the chimney cake about 1.5 inches thick. ‘Paint’ the inside of the chimney cake with the melted chocolate, then fill with vegan ice cream, strawberries, vegan marshmallows and drizzle with more chocolate
- Step 17 Serve!
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