es apokat cake (avocado cake with mocha fudge tunnel) and avocado milkshakes

I'm super excited about this cake. It’s assembled in no time at all, has a gorgeous colour, is unbelievably moist, and it has one of my new favourite flavours! A lot of people have never considered avocado and sugar together but ohmygosh it's so worth being brave and trying it. 

I had a fridge-load of avocados that had conspired to be ripe at exactly the same time (outwardly I was not amused but I rejoiced secretly) so I decided to branch out and try something different. I started with avocado milkshakes, or sinh tố bo if you're in Vietnam or es apokat if you're in Indonesia. Apparently they're quite popular in quite a few countries - and I'm not surprised!

I decided to use a Vietnamese recipe and the resulting milkshakes were TO DIE FOR. As simple as they were, we couldn’t get enough of them! They definitely taste like avocado but when sweet, you'd never imagine that they could be used for savoury purposes too! I also played with flavours, adding sweetened strawberries to one and going really Vietnamese on one, adding coffee syrup to it. The shake flavoured with a drizzle of coffee syrup around the rim was the most popular.  

And how could I pay homage to this wonderful new flavour combination? By making a cake of course, inspired by the Indonesian avocado milkshake. I've made sure to include classic ingredients such as sweetened condensed milk and chocolate and coffee.

The cake is very moist because of the avocados not to mention a funkylicious shade of green! The tunnel of mocha fudge I originally made was a little too overpowering for the subtle avocado flavour so I’ve toned it down in my recipe below. The cake is only lightly avocadoey and I haven’t had a problem getting anyone to taste a piece of it (and then inhale the rest).

Avocado Milkshakes (Sinh to Bo)

The recipe and some great information on these milkshakes can be found here on Viet World Kitchen. There's something addictive about this shake so consider yourself warned!

Es Alpukat Cake (Avocado Cake with Mocha Fudge Tunnel)

Because of the fudge tunnel, you can’t use a cake tester to see if the cake is done so I’ve given an exact cooking time. I used a oven thermometer to ensure my oven temperature but ovens have minds of their own so I'm not guaranteeing anything. Hopefully my pictures of the cake are a good indication of what to look for for a perfectly cooked cake!

I also used this coffee syrup but I've changed my recipe so that fresh espresso can be substituted.

For the fudge tunnel
½ cup	milk chocolate chips or 90gm/3oz milk chocolate, chopped into small pieces
250gm/8oz package	cream cheese, softened
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons	sugar
2 tablespoons	fresh espresso/instant coffee
For the cake
2 ½	medium avocados, weighing 6 to 8oz/180 to 240gm
150gm/5 ¼ oz	unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cup	sugar
4	eggs
½ teaspoon	lemon zest
2 cups	all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons	baking powder
½ teaspoon	salt
For the glaze
½	avocado (rest of avocado used for cake)
50gm/1 ¾ oz	unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon	lemon juice
1/3 cup	sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 180C/355F. Grease a 12 cup bundt pan and dust with flour. Shake out excess flour.

To make the fudge
Put the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and gently heat it until it melts, checking on it and stirring it every 10 seconds. Set aside.

In a medium bowl. beat the cream cheese and sugar until combined. Beat in the espresso and melted chocolate. Set aside.

To make the cake
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the 2 ½ avocados, butter and sugar together until creamy. There will be a few green flecks of avocado but don’t worry about them. Beat in the eggs and lemon zest until combined. Gently fold in the flour mixture until combined.

Spoon half of the cake mixture into prepared bundt pan. Using your fingers, spread more cake mixture up outer and inner sides of the pan to create a tunnel (see my picture above). Carefully spoon fudge into the tunnel (you may not need all of the fudge).

Cook in the preheated oven for 50 minutes or until cooked. The cake should gently spring back when pressed lightly. This is a moist cake that in an oven giving the correct heat, will just be cooked at 50 minutes. Set aside to cool on a cake rack for 20 minutes.

Gently move a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it and turn it onto a plate to cool completely.

To make the glaze
Mash the rest of the avocado and add the lemon juice, melted butter and sweetened condensed milk. Stir to combine. Pour over cooled cake. Let the cake sit for an hour to let the glaze set a little before serving.